Gundam SEED: Nemesis
by Count Morningstar
Summary: Earth and the PLANTs become embroiled in another war, and not even Kira and Lacus can put a stop to it. Even their own relationship is crumbling due to the laws of the PLANTs. And when it seems things can't get any worse, an unexpected enemy emerges and reveals a whole new level of terror. Rated M for blood and some later chapters.
1. Shattered Future

**Introduction:** The idea for this story is something I've had for at least a couple of years. But during that time I hadn't been able to piece it together. At least not until now after another annual viewing of the actual anime. So even though I have three other stories going right now, I'm going ahead with this one anyway. Because with a story like this I like to strike while the iron's hot. One thing I'm going to say right now is that it's going to have a few twists. There's also going to be some mobile suit battles in later chapters too. I've never written a battle like that before, but I'm up for the challenge.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam SEED, or anything in the Gundam franchise (oh, what I'd do if I did).

* * *

**ACT I: The Lurking Chaos**

Chapter 1: Shattered Future

Kira Yamato sat out on a bench in a small park near the military base where he worked. It was the middle of the day and he had decided to go and take a small break outside in the hopes that it would brighten his rather dismal mood, but the grey overcast sky above promised little chance of that. Kira's attention was taken away from the sky by the sound of a loud digital chime that rang from one of the surrounding buildings. Right at that moment, Kira's green and yellow mechanical bird, Birdy, landed on his left shoulder. Meanwhile the large screen at the top of the building Kira was looking at began to display a woman newscaster with green hair wearing a red blazer.

_"This is Stephanie Blanc with the noonday news."_ The newscaster announced. _"Our top story today, negotiations between the PLANTs and Earth have once again come to a standstill as the third Bloody Valentine War now enters its sixth month. In a related story, tomorrow marks the anniversary of the event that started the war, the destruction of the Clyne Colony."_

Kira's violet eyes became filled with sadness as the screen cut to scenes of the aforementioned ruined space colony. And as he looked on he once again tried to figure out where it had all gone wrong. After then end of the second war it had seemed that peace had finally come to both Earth and the PLANTs, and that the human race was ready to become as one again. That was the dream that Kira, his friends, and the love of Kira's life, Lacus Clyne, all fought for in the first two wars. And a whole year after the war that dream seemed like it was finally coming true with the creation of the Clyne Colony, a small colony created to be the home of people of both Earth and the PLANTs.

The colony of course was named in honor of Lacus and her family, and the era of peace that Kira had helped her forge. But a year later that peace was shattered when an unknown mobile suit came and obliterated the colony. Out of the sixty-five thousand people that lived in the colony, only a mere four hundred and fifty survived. When the dust had all but settled, ZAFT had determined that the mobile suit that attacked the colony was from the Earth Alliance. But the people of Earth denied that the mobile suit was from them and claimed that it was actually a ZAFT mobile suit, saying that they had evidence to that fact.

Endless arguing between the two parties began, arguing that not even Lacus could stop. Then a week after the colony's destruction, a rogue ZAFT ship launched an unprovoked attack on an Alliance base. The Alliance responded in kind with another attack, and soon enough a third war began. And it seemed that not even Kira and Lacus could do anything to stop it.

_"In lighter news,"_ Stephanie Blanc continued on the screen, snapping Kira from his thoughts, _"the wedding date for Supreme Council Chairwoman Lacus Clyne and Councilman Martin Helios has finally been set for this Saturday at noon."_

That was the other nail in the coffin for Kira. Originally when Lacus had become chairwoman of the PLANTs and he a ZAFT commander in order to ensure peace, neither of them had anticipated that they might have to adhere to the marriage regulations that the PLANTs had in place in order to keep the population up. And only four months ago, it seemed that whatever committee in place to enforce these regulations had decided that Lacus was genetically compatible with that man, Martin Helios. Of course Kira and Lacus wanted to fight this decision, but with a war raging on around them, they decided it best not to rock the boat. So as much as they both hated it, they went along with the regulations.

"You look like you're in a good mood." A voice said sarcastically, getting Kira's attention.

Kira turned his head and saw standing a few feet away a young man with black hair and ruby red eyes wearing a red ZAFT uniform with an unbuttoned collar. This was one of Kira's friends, Shinn Asuka. Kira and Shinn's friendship was an interesting one, as they were on opposing sides in the second war. Though they had not actually met each other until after the war was over, save for a brief encounter at a memorial in Orb.

"Hey there Shinn." Kira greeted as he tried his best to put on a smile. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"The Minerva is docked here for awhile to re-supply. I had a few hours and decided to swing by and see how you were doing." Shinn explained as he went over and sat next to Kira on the bench. "Kinda gloomy weather out here today."

"Yeah, the colony's weather system has been malfunctioning for the last week or so." Kira revealed. "It's actually been happening in all the other colonies too. We've been getting a lot of rain because of it."

"…I guess you heard already that a date's been set for Lacus and that guy to get married." Shinn mentioned after a moment. "How do you feel about that?"

"How do you think I feel?" Kira answered bitterly.

"No, I mean aren't you going to try and put a stop to it?" Shinn asked.

"It's not that easy Shinn." Kira told him.

"Like hell it isn't!" Shinn said with irritation in his voice as he suddenly got to his feet. "Why the hell are you going along with these dumb regulations? It's not like they're actually helping anyone! I've heard the birthrate for Coordinators is still going down!"

"Lacus and I don't have a choice in this matter!" Kira retorted as he also got to his feet, startling Birdy off his shoulder. "Fighting the marriage regulations right now would only cause more problems. This is what's best for the PLANTs."

"Bullshit!" Shinn argued. "Both you and Lacus are being idiots about this!"

"Look Shinn…" Kira began to respond, but his thoughts were disrupted when he felt a sort of flash go off in his mind.

"Excuse me, Commander Yamato?" a voice suddenly spoke, causing both Kira and Shinn to turn.

Standing behind Kira was a man who looked to be in his early twenties wearing a green ZAFT officer uniform. He stood at over six feet and had very fair skin and blonde hair that almost seemed to shine like spun gold and iron-grey eyes that almost seemed to spark like lightning.

"I better get going before I get charged with striking a superior officer." Shinn said before storming off.

"I hope I didn't interrupt anything." The blonde said to Kira with an apologetic expression.

"Nah, you're fine." Kira assured him. "Just who are you again?"

"Lieutenant Gar Thorson, sir." The blonde said as he saluted. "I was assigned as your aid last night. I hope you'll forgive me for not showing up early, but I was unavoidably detained. Shall we be getting back to your office sir?"

"Yeah, I guess it's about that time." Kira sighed.

"Are you all right sir?" Gar asked, looking a little concerned.

"Yeah, just having a bad day." Kira told him.

"Sir, permission to speak freely." Gar requested.

"Yeah, go ahead." Kira said feeling a little uncomfortable, as he had never really liked being treated as a superior officer or giving orders.

"I couldn't help but overhear some of your conversation with that young officer. And I have to say I agree with him." Gar admitted. "Your relationship with Chairwoman Clyne is well known by many in the PLANTs and on Earth. And it was that relationship that helped bring an end to the first two wars. Would it not be better for you to stay together?"

"As I was about to tell Shinn before he left, Lacus and I can't afford to fight the marriage regulations." Kira told the blonde with clenched fists. "If we did that… the PLANTs would become divided. And things are bad enough right now with the war. That's why… Lacus and I have no choice but to go along with this, no matter how much we hate it. We have to make this sacrifice."

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, in other words." Gar commented. "How very noble of you both. But there are times sir when the needs of the few outweigh the needs of the many, that what is best for one, or in this case two, is best for the society as a whole. You and Chairwoman Clyne seem to be far stronger leaders together than apart. And it seems to me that the human race as a whole would have far better chances if the two of you together were leading them."

"There was a time when Lacus and I thought that too." Kira admitted. "But look where we are now. C'mon, we should be getting back."

"Of course sir." Gar replied.

* * *

Later that day in another part of the colony, a worn out Lacus had returned to her office after another long meeting with the Supreme Council. Rain began to pour down outside her office window as the pink-haired woman sat down at her desk. Lacus then sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She then reached over and pressed the intercom button on her desk.

"Akiko, please hold all my calls for the next ten minutes." Lacus requested.

_"Of course Madam Chairwoman."_ Replied the voice of Lacus's female secretary, Akiko. _"Oh, and I was supposed to remind you about another meeting you have in thirty minutes with the finance minister. Do you want me to move it to another time?"_

"…No, it can't be helped I don't think." Lacus sighed.

_"As you wish ma'am."_ Akiko replied over the intercom.

Lacus turned her chair to face her office window. As she watched the rain pour down outside, Lacus began to reflect on all that was going on. Needless to say, she was not having the best week. Negotiations between Earth and the PLANTs had once again failed, and the conflict between both powers was only getting worse. And even though she was chairwoman of the council, Lacus was having trouble controlling them. Lacus had always believed that all that was needed was to decide what needed to be done and then just do it, but since the destruction of the Clyne Colony that had proven to be difficult to do, especially when some of the other council members would fight her.

Plus it had seemed like many of Lacus's decisions since the start of the war seemed to blow up in her face. One of the most disastrous of those decisions was when she attempted to send a peace envoy to Earth, only to have him killed by an Alliance mobile suit. Needless to say, Lacus had begun to doubt her capabilities as a leader. The other thing that was troubling Lacus at that moment was her impending marriage to Martin Helios. She had known it was coming for quite sometime, but with the date finally set it suddenly became very real. A wedding to a man she didn't love was the last thing the pink-haired songstress of the PLANTs wanted, but it was clear she didn't have any choice. At least not without causing more problems. But Lacus wished with all her heat that she were marrying Kira. Suddenly there came a knock on the door that stirred Lacus from her thoughts.

"Come in." Lacus answered as she turned her chair. Slowly the door opened, and walking in hesitantly was a woman with long blue hair wearing glasses with red frames, a short-sleeved yellow sweater, and a green skirt that went past her knees. "What is it Akiko?"

"Sorry for the interruption ma'am, but this item was just delivered to you." Akiko explained as she held out what looked like a black rose and a card.

Lacus stood up and took both items from the secretary. She then opened the small card to read what it said. The only thing written on the card was, 'See you soon.'

Suddenly a sort of flash went off in Lacus's mind and a chill ran down her spine. She quickly turned around to look out the window, expecting to see someone standing behind her. Yet when she turned she saw nothing.

"Ma'am, is something wrong?" Akiko asked.

"…Uh, no. It's nothing." Lacus assured her after a moment. Though the pink-haired songstress did not take her blue eyes away from the window. "Thank you Akiko, that'll be all for now."

"Ma'am." The bluenette said with a bow before turning and leaving the office. After a moment Lacus finally turned away from the window and sat back down at her desk.

* * *

In a dark room on the top floor of a building right across from Lacus's office, a man in the shadows grinned as he watched Lacus through a pair of binoculars. He was quite pleased that Lacus had received his little gift, and amused that Lacus seemed able to sense his presence. Satisfied with his work, the man put away his binoculars and left the room.

* * *

A little later that day the rain had finally stopped, and Gar had stepped outside the building well away from Kira. After making sure he was alone, Gar pulled out a device that resembled a white cell phone. After pressing a single button, Gar put the phone up to his ear.

"Come in Agent Fifteen." Gar said into the phone.

_"Reading ya loud and clear Agent Fourteen."_ Replied a young-sounding female voice on the other end.

_"Anything to report Tara?"_ Gar asked.

_"All's quite down here."_ Tara answered. _"Though I have to say, it's a miracle that Orb has stayed together with such a hothead as their leader."_

_"She's proven to be quite capable in her duties as chief representative in the past."_ Gar reminded her.

_"Yeah, I guess."_ Tara admitted. _"And things do seem pretty peaceful with her in charge. Still, I kinda wish something would happen. So far this mission's bee one big yawn. Did you ever think we'd be stuck doing this sort of thing when we joined the CIA?"_

"All of our missions are important, Tara. Even if they aren't exciting." Gar pointed out.

_"Yeah, yeah."_ Tara replied. _"But even so, I don't get why HQ put agents like us on this mission. We aren't even sure if there's really anything going on here."_

"It's not out place to question Headquarters." Gar told her in an almost scolding tone. "For now, just continue to observe and report. For all we know there could be a genuine crisis here."

_"Okay, okay!"_ Tara responded. _"You don't have to bite my head off. So how are things on your end?"_

"Not well actually." Gar admitted. "It seems that with all that's happened with this war, Mr. Yamato and Ms. Clyne have been losing hope. At least that's the impression I'm getting."

_"Then maybe we should tell them what really started this war."_ Tara suggested.

"We can only do that as a last resort." Gar reminded her. "And as you said before, we aren't even sure if there's really a crisis here."

_"True, but isn't part of our mission to make sure those two hook up?"_ Tara asked.

"We can only do so much right now, if anything at all." Gar said gravely. "But you are correct little sister, it is in the best interest of the human race if Kira Yamato and Lacus Clyne become their leaders. Even so, for now we can only watch and provide guidance if we can."

_"Then I guess we'll just have to do the best job of that we can."_ Tara replied. _"Take it easy, big brother."_

"You as well Tara." Gar said, and with that he hung up.

* * *

**Author's Note:** I hope this was at the very least an intriguing beginning. One thing that I had wished that the anime had dealt with more was that whole regulated marriage thing with the Coordinators. One has to wonder if that would've cause problems for Lacus and Kira. Of course I'm not the only writer who's decided to deal with that little possibility. But then this story isn't necessarily about that.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	2. Strange Gifts

**Author's Note:** Sorry this ended up being a short chapter. But I had a feeling that it would be a short one going into it. But even though it is short, it does help to set some stuff up.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam SEED, or anything in the Gundam franchise.

* * *

Chapter 2: Strange Gifts

Another gloomy day had begun as Kira entered his office at the ZAFT military base in the capital colony of Aprilius. Once of the thing that Kira disliked about his post was the fact that he had been kicked behind a desk when the third war began. Not that he wanted to partake in any actual combat if he could help it, but he felt that he could do far more than he had been. But it seemed that the military had felt that Kira could best serve them at his current post. So even though he was a commander in ZAFT, Kira did not seem to have any real power.

As Kira turned on the light in his office, he noticed what looked like a ceramic clay figure on his desk. It was an interesting looking statue with an almost sparkling white glaze. Its appearance seemed ancient, yet its design resembled something like a robot. The hips of the clay figure were wide and it had short arms and legs. But the most interesting characteristic of the figure was its eyes. Its eyes looked almost as though it was wearing a pair of goggles, and each lens had a horizontal slit in the middle.

"Hey Gar, could you come in for a minute?" Kira called as he went to his desk and picked up the figure to examine it more closely.

"You wanted to see me sir?" Gar asked when he came in. His eyes widened in surprise though when he saw the statue that Kira was holding.

"Do you know who left this on my desk?" Kira asked.

"…Uh no, I'm afraid not." Gar answered after a moment. "That's a Dogu, is it not?"

"Yeah, I've only seen pictures of them though." Kira replied as he admired the small statue. "How much do you know about them?"

"Only what I've read in books." Gar replied. "They were made during the country of Japan's Jomon period, and their use remains unknown to this day. Though there are theories that they were used in fertility rights or in rituals to cure disease. And there is also the theory that… that they were modeled after alien astronauts who came to explore Earth thousands of years ago."

"Is that what you believe?" Kira asked, catching Gar a little off guard.

"Why do you think that sir?" Gar replied.

"Well you kinda hesitated when you mentioned the thing about aliens." Kira noted.

"I only hesitated to speak of that theory because I thought you wouldn't appreciate hearing of such an outlandish theory." Gar explained.

"I dunno, I think it might be possible." Kira responded as he continued to look at the Dogu. "I mean it does look a little strange. In fact I think it almost looks like a mobile suit. Plus there is evidence of life out in space. Like that space whale fossil at the Supreme Council building."

"…Then perhaps you might be interested in another theory I once read about the Dogu." Gar hesitantly revealed. "The theory is that the Dogu were actually modeled after robotic probes sent to Earth by a highly advanced alien civilization."

"That's a new theory to me." Kira said as he placed the Dogu back on his desk. "Well, I don't know who sent me this thing, but I kinda like it."

"Um, if you'll excuse me sir, I just remembered an important phone call I have to make." Gar told him.

"Go right ahead." Kira replied. Gar then saluted and quickly left the office.

* * *

Outside the building, Gar quickly went to an open area where he wouldn't be seen and got out his phone. After pressing a certain button he put the phone to his ear.

"Come in Agent Fifteen, come in!" Gar said into the device with a hint of urgency in his voice. "Pick up Tara!"

_"…Do you have any idea what time it is here in Orb right now?"_ Tara asked with a yawn on the other end of the line.

"There's been a major development." Gar informed her. "Kira Yamato has received a Dogu."

_"No way! Are you sure it's real?"_ Tara replied, sounding very wide-awake at that moment. _"I mean it could be just another knock-off made by ancient humans."_

"I can assure you, it's genuine." Gar told her.

_"Then that means they're involved."_ Tara realized. _"And if they're involved, it means there really is a major crisis going on here. What do we do now?"_

"Only what we have been doing. But now we must be more vigilant." Gar answered. "Continue observing Orb, and inform me right away if you see more Dogu."

_"Roger that."_ Tara replied. And with that, Gar hung up.

* * *

Later that rainy evening, Lacus returned home to her family mansion after another miserable day. Upon entering the house, she was greeted by her bouncing menagerie of Haros. That day had been the anniversary of the start of the war, and because of that Lacus had to attend another memorial service in honor of the destroyed Clyne Colony. It broke Lacus's heart that a space colony named in honor of her and her family was slaughtered, and that its destruction was being used as a reason to go to war. But Lacus decided to put it out of her mind and try to get some rest, as the rest of her week only promised to get worse.

But just as the pink-haired songstress was about to head upstairs to her room, she glanced and spotted a plain brown package on the table by the door. Out of curiosity, lacus picked up the package and unwrapped it, revealing a white box with a card taped to the lid. Lacus detached the card in order to read what it said.

'To commemorate the death of peace.' Read the writing on the inside of the card.

Lacus noticed that the writing was like that of the card she had gotten with the black rose the previous day. She certainly did not like the grim message on the card, but Lacus proceeded to open the box. Upon looking inside though, Lacus let out a short scream and dropped the package to the floor. What was inside of the box was a dead mutilated white dove with its heart torn out. The newspaper lining the inside of the box was covered in the bird's blood.

As soon as Lacus had screamed, two of her bodyguards rushed into the room. Lacus promptly told them about the package with the dead dove. Once the bodyguards had moved Lacus to the sitting room of the mansion her entire security detail had begun a massive search of the grounds. Twenty minutes after the incident a man entered the room to talk to Lacus. He walked with a cane and had brown hair and a left eye that was scarred shut, and wore a simple black suit and tie. This was the head of Lacus's security detail, the famed war veteran, Andrew Waltfeld.

"Well, we've searched the entire estate from top to bottom and found no trace of the bastard that left that sick joke." Mr. Waltfeld reported. "I don't know how the hell he could've gotten in here to deliver that package."

"I think I should tell you now that I had received a black rose that came with a note." Lacus revealed. "It had the same handwriting as the note that came with that package I found."

"And why am I just learning about this now?" Mr. Waltfeld snapped.

"At the time I didn't think that rose was anything to worry about." Lacus told him. "But I guess I was wrong."

"Look, I'm sorry I yelled at you like that." Mr. Waltfeld sighed. "But I can't protect you unless I know what's going on."

"Of course." Lacus sighed. "So what now?"

"The only thing we can do is just beef up security both here and at the supreme council building." Mr. Waltfeld replied. "Maybe you should get some rest. You do have another meeting with the council tomorrow."

"That was what I was planning to do before this happened." Lacus said as she got up from the green couch she was sitting on.

"Oh, one other thing." Mr. Waltfeld spoke just as Lacus was about to head out of the room. "I know this is the last thing you want to hear, but I don't think you should mention any of this to Kira. I mean given all that's going on…"

"Yes, you're probably right." Lacus replied, cutting him off. She then continued to head out of the room, but stopped again when a flash went off in her mind and she felt the same sort of chill down her spine as the day before.

"Something wrong kid?" Mr. Waltfeld asked.

"…No, I think I'm just tired." Lacus answered after a moment before finally leaving the room.

* * *

Right across the street from the mansion, a man stood under a streetlight holding an umbrella in his left hand. With his right hand he held a pair of binoculars, which he used to look at Lacus through the mansion windows. He smiled and began laughing to himself when he saw that Lacus had once again sensed his presence like the day before when he sent the rose.

"Wait until you see the surprise I have in store for you tomorrow, Ms. Clyne." The man said as he put away his binoculars. Satisfied that he had accomplished what he had come to do, the man began walking away from the mansion.

* * *

**Author's Note:** The artifact that Kira received in this chapter, the Dogu, is one of my favorite type of clay sculptures. I did a fair bit of research on them a few years ago. As mentioned in the chapter, no one really knows what they were used for. One possibility aside from the ones mentioned in this chapter is that they were a form of child's toy. And there is of course the theory that they're modeled after aliens, as mentioned in this chapter. The theory about them being robotic probes is of my own invention though. But there have been a few examples of Dogu used in anime and manga. There's even a Dogu-based Pokemon, Baltoy Anyway, I've been wanting to use a Dogu as a plot device in a story for a few years now, so this story is using a pretty old idea.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	3. I Won't Hold You Back

**Author's Note:** The title of this chapter, _I Won't Hold You Back_, is also of a song by the band, Toto. It's actually one of my favorite songs by that group, and I felt that it made sort of a good theme song to this chapter. It's not necessary to hear the song in order to understand what's going on though. But it is a good song. Anyway, at the end of this chapter comes a major twist that will change everything.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam SEED, or anything in the Gundam franchise.

* * *

Chapter 3: "I Won't Hold You Back"

It was another rainy day as Kira rode in the back of a car to the Supreme Council building for a meeting. As Gar drove the car though the pouring rain, Kira focused his violet eyes out the window, though he wasn't looking at anything specific. His mind was clouded with too many thoughts. Kira knew that there was a good chance that he'd run into Lacus, and with her upcoming wedding Kira felt that it would be too painful to be near her. Noticing Kira's mood, Gar flipped on the radio hoping for something that would take the brown-haired commander's mind off his current problems.

_"Our top story this morning, Evidence 01 was stolen from the PLANT Supreme Council building last night."_ The male voice on the radio reported. _"Authorities are currently baffled as to how the famous space whale fossil retrieved by George Glenn was taken, as there was no sign of a break-in. In the lighter side of the news, guests from all over the PLANTs have already begun to gather for the wedding of the century between Chairwoman Lacus Clyne and…"_

"Gar, please change to something else." Kira requested.

"Of course sir." Gar replied as he quickly flipped to another station on the radio.

The song that played on the station that Gar had turned to was a rather depressing song that Kira remembered quite well. That same song was playing on the radio the evening that he and Lacus had decided to spit up for the good of the PLANTs. Kira could remember that moment as if it were yesterday.

* * *

_Four months earlier, Kira stood leaning against the stone fence in Lacus's backyard watching as the sun set over the artificial landscape. The portable radio that he and Lacus had brought outside was playing as Lacus walked over to join him. Both were silent for what seemed like a long time as the music played._

_"…So… you're going to go through with it?" Kira asked sadly, finally breaking the silence between them._

_"…I don't really have a choice." Lacus finally answered after a moment. "Fighting this decision would only cause more problems. And with a war going on we can't afford to make any waves."_

_"But… it isn't right!" Kira said as he finally turned to face Lacus. "I mean… why do you have to marry someone else when…." At this point Lacus put her hand on Kira's._

_"I know this is the last thing either of us wanted Kira. But we have to do what's best for everyone." Lacus told him. Kira took his hand away and looked down at the ground, anger filling his violet eyes. "I'll always love you Kira. And I know this isn't easy, but this is a sacrifice we just have to make."_

_Kira was silent for a long time. He kept thinking about the whole twisted situation that he and Lacus were in, and what Lacus had just said. And after a moment the more rational part of his mind made him realize that Lacus was probably right. They had to play along with the marriage regulations to preserve peace in the PLANTs._

_"…I really do hate this you know." Kira finally said before turning back to look at Lacus with a tearful smile. "But… I guess if it's for the good of the PLANTs then… we just have to learn to accept this."_

_Lacus approached Kira again and soon their faces were only inches away from each other. But just as they were about to kiss, Lacus suddenly pulled away at the last second. She then quickly walked away from Kira, and as she did Kira could swear that she was crying._

* * *

Back in the present, Gar looked at Kira in the rearview mirror and saw a single tear running down his left cheek. Finally noticing the sad tone of the song, Gar quickly changed the radio to another station.

_"You're listening to KLSD, Stardust Radio."_ A female voice on the radio announced. _"And now, here's an old hit from Supreme Council Chairwoman Lacus Clyne."_

"Uh, perhaps it would be best to leave the radio off." Gar suggested as he quickly shut down the infernal device. "We are almost there after all. Perhaps it would be beneficial if we went over today's itinerary again."

"Gar, could you just shut up for awhile?" Kira requested.

"Of course sir." The golden-haired lieutenant sighed. At that moment Gar wanted to shoot the car radio for making Kira's mood worse, but he held himself back. He realized that no matter what he could do, Kira was in for a very bad day.

* * *

A few minutes later, Kira and Gar had finally arrived at the supreme council building. But when they got there, they had found that the council was still in a meeting. They waited for two hours as the meeting went on, and the whole time Kira had been pacing around the large room that once housed the giant fossil of Evidence 01. Kira knew that he'd probably run into Lacus as soon as the door opened. At long last the meeting had ended, and as soon as the doors burst open, Lacus emerged still surrounded by a few other members of the council. But in seconds the group dispersed, and there stood Lacus alone before Kira. They stood there looking at each other for several seconds, but to Kira it felt like an eternity.

"…Uh, hey there." Kira greeted after a moment. "How're you doing?"

"Fine, I guess." Lacus answered. "How've you been Kira?"

"Okay I suppose." Kira said as he rubbed the back of his head. Just then Kira noticed the somewhat worried expression on Lacus's face. "Lacus, is something bothering you?"

"What? No, I'm quite all right." Lacus said with an assuring smile. Though Kira could somehow sense that she wasn't being honest.

"Well now, sorry that took so long, Lacus dear." A voice suddenly interrupted. "But you know how Defense Chairman Vargas can get when he's talking. I swear that man is in love with the sound of his own voice."

Kira, Lacus, and Gar all looked and saw walking towards them a man who looked to be in his early twenties stood about six feet tall and had short dark hair and green eyes. He wore the blue coat worn by civilian members of the council. Kira's hands balled into fists the moment he laid eyes on this man, for he was Lacus's fiancé, Martin Helios.

"Anyway, I hope I didn't keep you waiting long." Martin continued.

"Not at all Martin." Lacus assured him. "I was just talking to my friend, Kira." Kira felt like he had been hit in the chest when Lacus merely called him her friend, but he hid his reaction quite well.

"Ah yes, the famed Kira Yamato. Lacus has told me so much about you." Martin said as he suddenly put his arm around Lacus's shoulder. It took every amount of Kira's willpower to keep himself from punching Martin in the face. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Ah, there you are Commander Yamato. So sorry for the delay." A voice suddenly spoke.

Walking towards the group was an older man who looked to be in his late forties. He had slicked back grey hair and very pale skin. His eyes were olive green and almost reminded one of a sewage river. The man wore a purple and black ZAFT uniform, indicating that he was part of the Defense Ministry. Kira knew this man as the current Defense Chairman, Ian Vargas.

"Uh, not at all Chairman Vargas. I understand." Kira replied.

"I see you've finally met Chairwoman Clyne's fiancé." Vargas observed. "They make quite a pair, don't they?"

"If you'll excuse us Chairman, the chairwoman and I have to get going." Martin interrupted. "Wedding arrangements and all. Plus we have a date later this evening."

"Of course, of course." Vargas replied. "You two have a good evening. I look forward to attending the wedding this weekend."

Martin then walked away with Lacus. It was taking all of Kira's restraint not to rush after them.

"I do realize how difficult this must be for you, Yamato." Vargas spoke, getting Kira's attention. "I know you and Chairwoman Clyne became an item during the first two wars, but this is the way it has to be for the good of the PLANTs."

"Yeah, I know." Kira replied with sadness in his eyes.

"With all due respect, Chairman Vargas, why does it have to be this way?" Gar suddenly asked.

"Well that's obvious. Ms. Clyne has the best chance of producing a child with Mr. Helios." Vargas answered. "And it's in the best interest of the PLANTs that the Clyne family continues on. Besides, if the chairwoman of the council failed to follow marriage regulations, just think of the bad example it would set for our citizens. People would stop following them, and if that happened our population would cease to grow."

"There is an alternative to the regulations though." Gar noted. "If the Coordinators and the Naturals were to become one again, there would be no need to worry about a declining population."

"Don't be absurd!" Vargas said rather angrily. "I'm not saying of course that Coordinators and Naturals shouldn't blend of course, but there is little chance of that happening. I'm sure that to many here in the PLANTs, the idea of consorting with those who have been our enemy would be unthinkable. Besides, we tried that with the Clyne Colony and look what happened. The fact is that Coordinators and Naturals aren't ready to become one people again, and perhaps they aren't meant to."

"The evidence in Orb would seem to contradict that notion." Gar retorted.

"Look, whoever you are! I did not come here to debate marriage regulations!" Vargas told him. "I asked Commander Yamato here to meet with him about a new military offensive. So if you'll excuse us."

With that, Vargas began to walk off. Kira shrugged to Gar and followed after. As they walked off, Gar narrowed his iron-grey eyes suspiciously at Vargas.

* * *

The rain had stopped later that evening, and Lacus and Martin were out on their date. After the council meeting, Martin had accompanied Lacus to a dress fitting for the upcoming wedding, much to Lacus's dislike. Once the fitting was done though, Lacus had returned home for a much-needed break from her unwanted fiancé. But only three hours later, Martin returned and they had gone out to dinner. It wasn't so much that Lacus disliked Martin; she thought he was a good man. But Martin talked far too much about himself for her taste, and the simple fact was that Lacus found Martin boring. Still, it seemed that Lacus had no choice but to learn how to love him.

There was something else that had been bothering Lacus that whole evening though. And that was her little encounter with Kira at the council building. The last thing she wanted was for Kira to see her together with Martin, and she was certain that she hurt Kira when she told Martin that he was just a friend. Though Lacus knew that there really wasn't any way to avoid that. And there was one other thing that troubled Lacus about the encounter. She had wanted to tell Kira about the disturbing gifts that someone had been sending her, but of course she knew that she couldn't. With the way things were, it was best for Kira not to know anything about it.

At last the date had come to an end, and Martin was escorting Lacus to the front door of her home. They stopped right in front of the door and turned to face each other.

"I had a wonderful time as always Lacus." Martin told her. "Just think that very soon you and I won't have to be doing what we are now. We'll be living in the same home."

"I'm looking forward to that." Lacus lied.

At that moment, Martin leaned in for a kiss, much to Lacus's displeasure. But Lacus knew that she had to bite the bullet and play along. Just as the pink-haired songstress was about to meet Martin half way though, a flash went off in her mind and she felt a chill run down her spine. It was the same feeling Lacus had the previous two nights. Suddenly there was a loud bang and Lacus felt something splash onto her face. It took a moment for Lacus to realize that the liquid that had splattered onto her face, and the front of the powder-blue dress and blue jacket she was wearing, was blood. Lacus then looked down and saw Martin's body on the ground slumped against the door. He had been shot in the side of the head.

"I'd think you would be glad that this happened. As I know that the last thing you wanted was to marry that man." A shockingly familiar voice spoke. "But then I realize how much you hate death and destruction. Where as I have no qualms about taking a human life."

Hesitantly Lacus turned her head and saw standing but a few feet away a man wearing a white ZAFT uniform with white gloves and holding the very gun that had shot Martin in the head. He had pale blonde hair that went just past his shoulders, and a distinctive white mask covered the top half of his face. Lacus knew who this man was very well. She had only met him briefly during the first war after her first encounter with Kira, but it is hard for one to forget a person who walked around all the time wearing a mask. It was the man who since the end of the first war had haunted Kira in his dreams, a man who wished for the extinction of the entire human race. But what frightened Lacus though was that she knew for a fact that the man standing before her was supposed to be dead, for Kira had killed him with his own hands at the end of the first war. Yet there the masked man was, standing right there looking very much alive.

"I trust that you received the little gifts I sent you Chairwoman Clyne. Just my little way of saying hello." The masked man said as he advanced. "It occurs to me though that even though we've met briefly once, we were never properly introduced. Allow me to correct that. My name is Rau Le Creuset."

* * *

**Author's Note:** He's _baaack_. Don't worry, I intend to explain how Le Creuset's little resurrection is possible in the next chapter. But for now the title of this story should make a little more sense.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	4. The Horror From Beyond

**Author's Note:** I had a little bit of a rethink today about how I was going to do this story. Originally I was planing to split this into multiple stories, but then I decided that it might make more sense to do this as one story with probably three acts. So if you've already been following this story, you might notice in chapter one there's another title that says the name of the first act, _The Lurking Chaos_. Aside from that though, nothing much has changed (though I do need to outline the next acts). Anyway, there's a major twist in this chapter. One that allowed me to go back to my horror roots.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam SEED or anything from the Gundam franchise (imagine how rich I'd be if I did.)

* * *

Chapter 4: The Horror From Beyond

Lacus woke up to find herself on her feet without her blue jacket and her arms stretched above her. Upon looking at her surroundings the pink-haired songstress sees that she's in a dimly lit room directly under a bright spotlight, her arms strung up by some sort of thin metal cable. After looking around, Lacus also noticed that a few feet away from her across the room was a large fossil of a skeleton that looked like a whale with wings, which she recognized as the stolen Evidence 01. While trying to figure out exactly where she was, Lacus suddenly remembered just how she had gotten into her current predicament. She remembered seeing Martin shot in the head right before her eyes and quickly recalled Le Creuset was the one who had shot him. The last thing Lacus could remember after that was the masked man suddenly rushing her and hitting her in the head with the handle of his gun. Her head was still throbbing in the spot where he hit her.

"Ah good, you're finally awake." A familiar voice spoke. Lacus turned her head and saw Le Creuset sitting in a chair in a dim corner of the room, drinking what looked a cup of tea. "I was actually starting to worry that I had hit you a little too hard."

"Where am I?" Lacus asked.

"Right now we're in an abandoned space station known as Observation 1." Le Creuset explained as he set his cup and saucer on the small table next to his chair and got to his feet. "This place was set up by your predecessor to research deep space. Ah poor Gilbert. He was a brilliant man, but perhaps rather naive. It was a rather ambitious plan he had to put an end to this world of endless desires of ours. But I wonder if it really would've worked? Would it really have been possible to remove humanity's desires by altering their genes? After all, wouldn't an animal in a cage always wonder about what's outside?"

"Who are you?" Lacus demanded to know.

"I already told you who I am, my dear." Le Creuset replied as he walked into the light.

"You can't be Rau Le Creuset!" Lacus argued. "Le Creuset died at the end of the first war." At this Le Creuset chuckled and turned to walk towards the fossil.

"A magnificent specimen, don't you agree Ms. Clyne?" Le Creuset commented. "Evidence 01, proof that life exists in the reaches of outer space. But little did George Glenn know that he had only scratched the surface with this find."

"What are you talking about?" Lacus asked.

"I am saying that the universe is filled with far greater wonders than just a simple flying whale, and those wonders have been revealed to me." Le Creuset began as he turned back to face Lacus. "Only a split second before my mobile suit was destroyed by the death blow of GENESIS, I suddenly found that I was no longer inside it. Instead some force was pulling me through a strange tunnel of light. My first thought of course was that I was on my way to the afterlife, if such a thing exists of course. But instead I found that I was rescued from the jaws of death by a powerful force beyond imagination.

"Everything began to change after that. You wouldn't believe the level of medical technology of those who rescued me. It is on such a level that it makes even the technology of the Coordinators look as primitive as using leaches. My very DNA was altered to correct my flawed aging. Much of my organs were replaced, partly to repair the damage done during my last battle, and partly to make it easier for me to survive on their world. And I was awake for the whole thing, you couldn't imagine the level of pain I experienced.

"When it was all over I fell into the deepest sleep I had ever experienced. When I awoke they told me I was out for two months. But during my long sleep they showed me dreams that revealed the truth about the universe. Would you like me to share that truth with you Ms. Clyne?"

"Do I have a choice?" Lacus asked sarcastically, completely convinced that the man standing before her was totally insane.

"The truth my dear is that our world is not the only one filled with endless desires." Le Creuset claimed. "In my vivid dreams I saw thousands of other worlds whose inhabitants destroyed themselves through endless conflict. They brought about their own extinction, and rightfully so, because they deserved to die. And after I had been shown all this and I awoke, those who brought me back came before me. They told me that I was rescued so that I could become their agent of chaos and finish what I started with our world."

"Do you really expect me to believe that?" Lacus told him.

"Oh I'm sure you don't believe me Ms. Clyne. In fact you must think that I am mad." Le Creuset laughed. "And perhaps I am mad, but if I am then so are we all. For the universe itself is insane! It is nothing more than a swirling mass of chaos that serves no purpose but to exist! But I assure you my dear that everything I have told you is true. And you will soon see the proof with your very own eyes"

"And just what is this proof you have?" Lacus demanded to know. But suddenly as if in answer to her own question she heard a sort of flopping, squishing noise that sounded almost like footsteps.

"Ah, here comes out honored guest now." Le Creuset said with a mad grin.

Lacus listened as the flopping noise slowly came closer, and soon she could smell an odor that she could only describe as that of rotting fish. The stench became more potent as the sound came closer and closer. Then at last from a doorway on the left side of the room came a thing that made Lacus go pale. It was a creature that stood about six feet tall and did not at all look human. It probably had something that resembled a humanoid body, but it was wearing black robes that covered much of its form. And Lacus was very grateful for that, for it would've been to horrid to see the thing's full anatomy. But what Lacus could clearly see though was that the thing had an octopus-like head with a pair of large yellow eyes and tentacles surrounding its mouth. Its skin was green like slime, and it had four tentacles for arms.

"Ye eh chloth, High Emperor." Le Creuset greeted as he crossed his arms over his chest like a mummy.

"Chloth yel yikak, Le Creuset." The thing greeted back in a slimy voice. "I trust everything is going as planed."

"Of course sir." Le Creuset said before turning back to Lacus. "Chairwoman Clyne, may I present Cha-Cathock, High Emperor of the Yulock."

"Ah, so this is the leader of the faction of these human insects known as the Coordinators." The thing known as Cha-Cathock said as he flopped over far too close for Lacus's comfort. The thing's stench became unbearable. "I had no idea that she was such a… pretty specimen."

Suddenly Cha-Cathock tore off the front of Lacus's top with his tentacles, revealing the pink bra she was wearing underneath, causing her to yelp. The alien creature then began to rub his four tentacle arms all over Lacus's upper body and even fondle her breasts. Lacus didn't scream though, for she was far too terrified to do so.

"Yes, a very pretty specimen indeed." Cha-Cathock commented. "I would be very interested in using this one to try some interspecies mating."

Lacus's eyes went wide upon hearing this, for she knew very well what that thing was implying. At that moment she wished her mind could just leave her body and go far away. She wanted to suddenly wake up to find that she was only having a nightmare, but it felt far too real to be one.

"But unfortunately I am far too busy at the moment for such pleasures." Cha-Cathock said as he suddenly withdrew his tentacles, much to Lacus's relief.

"If you like, I can deliver her to you once I've finished with Kira Yamato." Le Creuset offered.

"Good, good." Cha-Cathock said with a sort of fiendish glee as he flopped back over to the masked man's side. "It seems that this operation is going to be far more profitable than I thought. Let me know as soon as you're done with that nuisance, Kira Yamato. And… bring the girl with you if you can."

"Of course." Le Creuset said with a bow.

With that, Cha-Cathock slowly left the room. Lacus was very relieved when the thing was out of sight. But she knew that the nightmare was far from over, for she was still a captive after all.

"Well, it seems you made quite an impression on my friend." Le Creuset said as he walked up to Lacus. "You might be seeing him again fairly soon. But then again that all depends on what happens with Kira. I did after all capture you in order to lure him here. But then who knows if he'll even come to your rescue, for you did reject him for a man you didn't even love. But then even if he does come, there's no way he'll be able to defeat me, so the result will be the same either way. I'll leave you for now to contemplate your fate."

With that, the masked man walked out of the room laughing, leaving Lacus right where she was. Tears began to stream down Lacus's face as soon as he left. She wanted to go into a corner and curl up into a ball at that moment. But with the way she was tied up, she couldn't even do that. And what hurt the pink-haired songstress the most was that she knew that Le Creuset was probably right. There was a very good chance that the one man who could save her, the one man she loved, wouldn't lift a finger to save her. Why would he after tossing him aside for some pointless regulations?

At that moment, one name escaped Lacus's lips in the form of a whisper, "Kira."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Yep, there are aliens in this story. One thing that always bugged me about the Gundam franchise is that even though they were in space most of the time, they never really did anything with aliens. There are a few notable exceptions like the Gundam 00 movie, the space whale from Gundam SEED (which has been used in this story somewhat), and I think that Gundam Age series. But I don't really know anything about that last one. Anyway, I decided to do something about the lack of aliens in my own way.

Le Creuset's alien friends, the Yulock, ended up being heavily inspired by the works of horror author, H.P. Lovecraft. In fact I had an early idea for a Gundam SEED story where our masked psycho tried to revive Cthulhu. I sort of figured that an alien monster waiting to awaken and destroy the human race would be something Le Creuset would be into. So that idea sort of lives on here. Anyway, in the next chapter the epic showdown kicks off, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, please review and let me know what you think.


	5. Temptress

**Author's Note:** I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who's reviewed this story so far, including of course the guest reviews (whoever you are). One reviewer I'd especially like to thank is Findarato, who gave me a very good suggestion that really helped this chapter.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam SEED or anything from the Gundam Franchise.

* * *

Chapter 5: Temptress

Pandemonium had erupted in the PLANTs since the previous evening. Lacus's disappearance and the murder of her fiancé had quickly spread throughout the colonies. The authorities had no clue as to who had committed the deed. And there were no witnesses to the crime, as almost all of Lacus's security detail had been killed. All except however for one man. And that very morning Kira immediately rushed to the hospital to speak with the man who might know something about who might've taken Lacus. When Kira burst into the survivor's hospital room, he found Mr. Waltfeld wide-awake and sitting up in his bed. The scarred war hero turned his head to look at Kira.

"I had a feeling you'd be showing up." Mr. Waltfeld sighed.

"What the hell happened Mr. Waltfeld?" Kira angrily demanded to know.

"Look kid, before you jump down my throat, I don't know what happened!" Mr. Waltfeld told him. "The last thing I remember was being shot in the back, I don't know who it was. The guy must've gone after me first. I'm lucky his shot just missed my heart."

"So you really don't know what happened?" Kira asked, disappointment filling his violet eyes.

"No, and believe me kid, I feel almost as bad about this as you." Mr. Waltfeld said sadly. "It was my responsibility to protect her after all. When did you find out about this?"

"Last night I got a visit from the police." Kira answered. "It looked like I was their prime suspect. Fortunately I was with my aid, Gar, when it happened."

"Well I hope you're not planning to do anything stupid." Mr. Waltfeld told him. "Right now it's just best to let the police handle this."

"You expect me to just sit back while someone has Lacus captive and might be doing who knows what to her?" Kira said angrily as if the very idea was absurd.

"Hey, I don't like this any more than you do. Hell, I'd rather be out there leading the search myself instead of lying here. But we can't just go out there guns blazing like in the old days." Mr. Waltfeld pointed out. "All we can do is just sit back and wait."

"Sound advice if I ever heard any." A voice suddenly spoke. Kira and Mr. Waltfeld looked to see Vargas entering the room. "Ah, what a pity it is to see the famed Desert Tiger is such a state. How're you doing Waltfeld?"

"Well Chairman Vargas, all things considered I'm guess I could be doing worse." Mr. Waltfeld admitted. "But this hospital won't even let me have a cup of coffee. Of course the stuff they have here is probably is probably terrible anyway."

"Well, I'm sure you'll be up and around again in no time." Vargas said encouragingly. "In the meantime, you just get your rest. We're going to need you at your best once Chairwoman Clyne is found. And as for you Yamato, I believe you have duties at the base to attend to."

"I'll be leaving in a few minutes, sir." Kira replied. "Mr. Waltfeld is an old friend of mine."

"Of course, of course. I forgot for a moment that you two fought together in the last to wars." Vargas recalled. "Well, I should be off. I'm glad to see you're recovering Waltfeld." And with that, Vargas left the room.

"I never could stand that Vargas." Mr. Waltfeld commented. "I still don't get why he decided to put someone like you behind a desk."

"Neither do I." Kira admitted. "But that's just how it is I guess. Well, I guess I should be going too. I'll see you later."

"Don't worry kid, I'm sure Lacus will be fine." Mr. Waltfeld said just as Kira was about to leave the room.

"Yeah, I hope so." Kira said before leaving.

* * *

Meanwhile outside the hospital, Gar was pacing around with a clam yet angry expression. At one point he went over and punched one of the stone pillars lining the sides of the path into the building with such force that a large crack formed.

_"Come in Agent Fourteen."_ A voice spoke from his communicator. Gar put the device to his ear.

"I'm here Tara. What have you to report?" Gar asked.

_"Only that the abduction of Lacus Clyne has made the news down here in Orb."_ Tara replied. _"Not to mention the murder of that drip she was engaged to."_

"It's my fault. I should've been keeping a better eye on her." Gar said as he clenched his left hand into a fist.

_"Hey big bro, don't start beating yourself up now."_ Tara told him. _"For one thing, we don't even know that she's dead. What you have to do is stay focused, and keep your eye on Kira Yamato. Whoever took our pink-haired princess we'll probably go after him next."_

"I suppose you're right." Gar admitted with a sigh. "Let me know if something happens in Orb."

_"You know I will."_ Tara assured him.

* * *

Hours later, Kira was at his desk at the base, looking over some papers. But he was having an incredibly hard time staying focused. Kira couldn't believe that he was doing paperwork while Lacus was somewhere probably afraid and in pain. Suddenly the phone on his desk rang, giving Kira a very welcome distraction.

"Commander Yamato speaking." Kira said into the phone after picking it up.

_"Hello Kira. It's been a long time, hasn't it?"_ Le Creuset's voice answered on the other end. Kira's blood ran cold as the masked man began to laugh maniacally into his ear.

"Who… who are you?" Kira demanded to know.

_"I think you know the answer to that, my boy."_ Le Creuset replied. _"By the way, Chairwoman Clyne and I are having a lovely time together."_

"What the hell have you done with Lacus you psycho?" Kira demanded, almost shouting.

_"Why nothing at the moment."_ Le Creuset assured him. _"We'd be delighted if you'd join us though. I've already sent you the coordinates of where we are to the computer in your office. I don't think I need to tell you what'll happen if you don't come alone. I'll be waiting Kira."_

With that, the line went dead. Kira slammed to phone down and turned to his computer. Sure enough, he found a message from an unknown source with some coordinates in space. After memorizing them and finding out just what they were of, Kira turned off his computer, got up from his desk, and stormed out the office. Seconds after Kira left the room, the Dogu that was on his desk suddenly glowed with a white light and vanished.

* * *

Meanwhile, Le Creuset had just put an odd green mobile phone-looking device into his pocket. With his call to Kira finished, the masked man went to go check on his prisoner. From the doorway he could see that Lacus was still standing where she was, her arms still bound in the same position. He noticed the forlorn expression Lacus had on her face, and it gave him a rather fiendish idea.

"Come now my dear, you needn't give up hope yet. Your champion is on your way to rescue you." Le Creuset said as he entered the room, causing Lacus to perk up a little. "Of course, there's no guarantee that he'll get here."

"What do you mean?" Lacus asked.

"You see my friends have set up a little obstacle for him." Le Creuset answered as he suddenly grabbed Lacus's chin, his lips curved into a sinister smile. "It will be interesting to see if he makes it past. Between you and me I'm rather hoping he does, for nothing would please me more than to kill Kira by my own hands. But I must admit that there's very little chance of that. It's a very enticing trap I hear, and after the way you tossed him aside I wouldn't be surprised if it caused Kira to forget all about rescuing you."

With that, Le Creuset let go of Lacus and walked out of the room laughing. Once the masked man was out of earshot, Lacus began to cry again.

* * *

As Kira rushed down the highway in his car, his mind kept racing trying to figure out just who had really taken Lacus. He couldn't believe that it was Rau Le Creuset, for he had killed the masked man with his own hands, and it nearly cost him his life. Kira thought that perhaps that the man he spoke to was only imitating Le Creuset's voice, or perhaps the culprit was even another Al De Flaga clone. He had fought one who was apparently a friend of Shinn's at the end of the second war. Yet despite these possibilities, Kira could not help but shake the feeling that he had spoken to the real Rau Le Creuset.

At that moment though, Kira didn't give a damn about who had taken Lacus or even if he was walking into a trap. All Kira cared about was saving Lacus. But to do that, he needed to get something. He had found in his office at the base that the coordinates led to an old abandoned space station, and the fastest vehicle that could get him there was his old mobile suit, the Strike Freedom. Unfortunately, the Freedom was being held in a hanger that was a good ways away from the base he worked at. Which meant an agonizingly long drive, but after what seemed like forty minutes Kira had finally arrived at his destination.

Once he had parked his car, Kira quickly went into the base. It was easy enough for him to get in due to his rank. Though he had a feeling that even with rank, getting to the Freedom would be harder. After passing through at least five checkpoints within the base, Kira finally reached the zero gravity level, and door that would lead him to the main hanger. The two guards saluted Kira as he walked up.

"How can we help you, commander?" one of the guards asked.

"I came here to take a look at my old mobile suit." Kira explained. "Mind letting me in?"

"Sorry, no can do commander." The second guard replied. "Any other day, you might've gotten in. But we got word from Defense Chairman Vargas not to let you pass. It's a shame too, actually. I heard that they're decommissioning the Freedom tomorrow."

"I see." Kira said as he turned a little as if he was about to leave. "Well in that case…"

With incredible speed, Kira tackled the second guard on the left side of the door to the ground and knocked him out. Then just as the first guard pulled out his gun, Kira rushed him, knocked the gun out of his hand, and then knocked him out with a right cross to the jaw. Having dispatched the guards, Kira used their passkeys to open the large metal door before him. Once through the door, which had slammed shut behind him after he had passed through, Kira found himself in a long metal corridor. It would not be long before he reached the Freedom.

"Kira?" a very familiar voice spoke, greatly startling Kira.

Kira turned around, and he could not believe his eyes when he saw the person that was hovering before him in the zero gravity. It was a young woman who looked to be in her early twenties. She had long reddish-brown hair and wore a simple pink dress. Kira knew exactly whom the young woman was quite well, yet he knew that it was impossible for her to be standing, or rather floating, right there before him. It truly did seem to be raising the dead, for the young woman had been killed by Le Creuset himself during the final battle of the first war, along with a few other poor souls who were only trying to escape the battleship, Dominion. Yet there she was alive and well.

"F-Flay?" Kira said to the young woman who he knew as his former love, Flay Allster.

"That's right Kira, I've come back to you." The young woman who seemed to be Flay confirmed.

"But, how?" a very confused Kira asked.

"Does that really matter?" Flay asked as she came towards him. "All that matters is that I've come back to you."

"But…" Kira tried to speak. But before he could say any more, Flay pinned him against the wall and placed a finger over his mouth to silence him.

"Don't talk now." Flay whispered. "Just relax. Let me take care of you."

Before Kira knew it, he and Flay were locked in a kiss. And it felt very real to Kira. In fact he had remembered just how good it felt to kiss Flay. He had to admit that even though Flay had died, and that their relationship didn't end on the best of terms, he still had feelings for her. It seemed that one never truly gets over their first love. But almost as Kira pulled Flay into an embrace, he suddenly remembered Lacus and how much he loved her. And he remembered that somewhere at that moment Lacus was in the hands of an evil man that would kill her without a second thought. Realizing what he was doing, Kira pushed Flay away.

"Why did you do that?" a very hurt Flay asked.

"I'm sorry Flay…" Kira said as he looked away from her. "But even though you're somehow back, I can't be with you. There's someone else."

"It's her, isn't it?" Flay angrily assumed. "That pink-haired Coordinator tramp! Why are you wasting your time with her after she dumped you for someone else?"

"Lacus didn't have a choice about that." Kira argued. "Look Flay, bottom line is that I love Lacus. And right now she's in danger and I have to help her. Besides, it ended between us a long time ago. I'm sorry."

Suddenly from Flay's mouth came a horrific inhuman noise that caused Kira to turn and look at her again. His violet eyes widened in horror as Flay suddenly morphed into a loathsome green entity with an octopus head, yellow eyes, and four tentacles for arms. The thing roared at Kira again, but just as it was about to lunge at him, Kira felt a flash go off in his mind. A second later, someone struck the creature from behind, knocking it to the floor. Kira was greatly surprised to see that the person who attacked the creature was Gar.

"I see, so the Yulock are behind all of this." Gar observed. The alien creature looked up at Gar, snarled, and then vanished in a flash of red light. With the thing gone, Gar turned his attention to Kira. "Are you all right sir?"

"What… was that thing?" a very shocked Kira managed to ask.

"That will have to wait I'm afraid." Gar replied. "Did it harm you?"

"No, but… it made itself look like someone I used to know."

"What you saw was an illusion." Gar explained. "The person you thought you saw was never there. It was only that creature."

Kira suddenly had to hold back the urge to vomit. The idea of that vile-looking thing with its tentacles wrapped around him and his lips touching that octopus face was a little too much. He couldn't believe he had let the thing kiss him, or even believed that he thought Flay had returned from the dead. Plus Kira also felt as if he had just betrayed Lacus for allowing it to happen.

"Sir, we need to hurry if we wish to save Ms. Clyne." Gar reminded him, snapping Kira back to reality.

"Yeah, you're right." Kira said after managing to regain his composure. "Let's go."

In a few more moments, Kira and Gar made it to the inside of the hanger. And standing before him was the large humanoid robot that was Kira's mobile suit, the Strike Freedom. Kira was pleased to see that his old machine looked to still be in good condition.

"I'll go get things ready for you to launch." Gar told Kira. "You should go prepare as well."

Kira nodded and headed for the locker room. Inside he found his old locker, which he found had not been touched since he was there last. Within the locker he found his old flight suit and helmet, which he quickly changed into. Once changed, Kira headed back out to the Freedom and got inside the cockpit. After turning it on, Kira checked to make sure all the systems were in order.

"Your machine is armed and ready sir. And the hanger doors are open." Gar reported over the Freedom's communicator. "You may launch when ready."

"Thanks Gar." Kira replied. "But I have to ask, who are you? And how did you know about that thing?"

"I'm afraid there is no time for me to answer those questions sir." Gar responded. "But please know that I have come to help both you and Ms. Clyne. Now go to her, and good luck."

"You too." Kira told him before activating the ignition system. "Kira Yamato, Freedom! Let's do it!"

With those words, the mechanical titan sprang to life and flew from the spot where it was standing. The machine's phase shift armor activated as it flew out hanger doors, changing it to its trademark colors. In mere seconds the Freedom had left the hanger and was flying at top speed to where Lacus was being held. Meanwhile in the control room, Gar was looking at the empty spot where the Freedom once stood.

"You will not be fighting this battle alone, Kira Yamato." Gar said to himself.

Suddenly Gar's body began to glow with a golden light, and in moments it faded to reveal that he was wearing a completely new outfit instead of the ZAFT uniform he was previously wearing. His knew outfit consisted of a white coat that went down to just above his knees and buttoned on the left side with three silver buttons, along with black pants, white shoes, and silver fingerless gloves. Around his waist over the coat was a silver belt with an odd buckle with four different buttons on it like a control pad. Gar pressed one of those buttons, and suddenly a ball of gold light surrounded him. The ball of light then passed though the glass of the control room as if it was air and took off after the Freedom like a shooting star.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Once again I'd like to thank Findarato for the suggestion of bringing Flay back in order to tempt Kira. I'm sorry if it wasn't what you had in mind though. But I can only resurrect so many people within the logic of the story. Plus I felt it made more sense for Flay to be an illusion. Not to mention that it helped to show of some of the abilities of the Yulock. Anyway, as we've just seen, Kira isn't alone in this fight. Of course I'll explain who Gar is in time, but one thing to keep in mind is that CIA doesn't necessarily stand for what one think it might in this case. Also as this chapter implied, that Dogu Kira got in chapter two is going to play a pretty important role later.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	6. Nemesis Rising

**Author's Note:** We now come to the exciting first showdown between Kira and Le Creuset. I say first showdown because we are still only in the first act of this story. Anyway, this is my first attempt at writing a mobile suit battle, so be kind.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam SEED or anything from the Gundam franchise.

* * *

Chapter 6: Nemesis Rising

It had taken Kira only sixteen and a half minutes to reach the space station where Le Creuset was holding Lacus captive. He could see that the station's hanger was open in waiting for his arrival. As the Freedom flew into the waiting hanger, Kira could see that there was no other mobile suits there, which he took as a good sign. For if his enemy truly was Rau Le Creuset, the last thing Kira wanted was to get into another mobile suit battle with him, as he had barely survived their battle at the end of the first war. But of course, even without a mobile suit, Kira knew that Le Creuset was still a very dangerous man.

As soon as the Freedom had landed, Kira prepared his sidearm and disembarked. The artificial gravity of the space station was on, so he had to use zip line to get out. He then stealthily rushed out of the hanger and into the dark hallway of the station, where it became a decision of whether to go left or right. Kira's instincts told him to go left, though he wasn't at all sure if that was the right way to go. But then he knew he would be able to tell just when he was getting close, for if it truly was Le Creuset he was dealing with, Kira would be able to sense him.

Sure enough after a few minutes of walking down the dimly lit corridor with his gun at the ready, a flash went off in Kira's mind and a chill ran down his spine. The young Coordinator knew very well what that feeling was, and he was certain that not even one of the creatures that had imitated Flay could recreate that sensation. Kira knew without a doubt that it was Le Creuset. But there was another sensation that Kira had felt at the same time he detected the masked man's presence. It was a warm nostalgic feeling that filled him with a sort of peace.

Kira thought about what this feeling meant, and then he realized just who he was sensing when a single name escaped his lips. "Lacus"

* * *

Not too far away, still bound in the same position, Lacus suddenly felt a flash in her mind go off, and then suddenly felt a very warm familiar feeling wash over her. At the same time, Le Creuset smiled and got up from the chair he was sitting in.

"You can sense it too, can't you my dear?" Le Creuset asked as he walked over. "You can sense as well as I can that your champion has finally arrived."

_'He actually came for me?'_ Lacus thought to herself, a spark of hope filling her blue eyes.

"You shouldn't get too excited though." The masked man continued. "I guarantee you that Kira will not survive what I have in store for him."

* * *

Moments later Kira came to a doorway that led to a more brightly lit room. And he could tell that Lacus and Le Creuset were both in there. But just as Kira was about to try to sneak in he was greeted by a gunshot.

"So nice of you to finally join us Kira." Le Creuset called from inside the room. "I'm quite impressed that you were able to get past the little trap my friends had set for you."

Kira got by the door and moved his head just enough to peek into the room. Sure enough, Le Creuset was standing there holding a gun. And there was Lacus standing under a spotlight with her arms bound and held above her head. Kira quickly realized that if he fired into the room he'd risk hitting Lacus.

"Don't be shy now Kira. Come join us." Le Creuset called out of the room again. "Ah, I see. You're afraid I'll shoot. Don't worry, that shot from earlier was just my little way of greeting you. I didn't have you come all this way only to kill you with a gun."

A second after the masked man's claim, Kira heard the sound of a metal object hitting the floor. He peeked around the corner again and saw that Le Creuset had indeed dropped his gun. Slowly, Kira walked into the room with his own weapon firmly pointed at the masked fiend.

"There now, isn't this better?" a still very confident-looking Le Creuset asked.

"Let Lacus go, now!" Kira ordered.

"Come now boy, do you really think I'll release her that easily?" Le Creuset chuckled.

"If you don't… I'll shoot you." Kira warned, his finger tightening on the trigger.

"Will you now. Somehow I doubt that." Le Creuset replied, still looking very unafraid. "I know for a fact that you hate to kill, where as I can kill without a second thought. It's one of the things that makes us opposites."

"I will kill you if I have no choice." Kira told him.

"Then do it." Le Creuset dared. "Strike me down right here while I'm unarmed. That is if you have what it takes to kill someone who isn't able to fight back."

Kira's hand then began to tremble as he tried to squeeze the trigger. Try as he might, even with his hatred for the masked man before him, even with Lacus captured, Kira could bring himself to fire at an unarmed opponent. After a moment, Kira dropped his arm to his side as Le Creuset began to laugh.

"I knew you didn't have it in you." Le Creuset taunted. "But then I suppose gunplay isn't your style. Why don't we engage in a style of combat that you're far more used to?"

The masked man then pulled from his pocket something that looked like a black pearl, which he then held in the palm if his hand before Kira. Suddenly there was a blinding flash of red light, and a moment later Kira found himself sitting in the cockpit of the Freedom. Even his helmet was back on his head. Suddenly the mobile suit's systems activated, and Kira found that the Freedom was floating back out in space out in front of the space station. As Kira tried to figure out what had just happened, a large ball of red light came from the station like a shooting star. The light then exploded, and emerging from it was another mobile suit.

The new machine bore a great resemblance to the mobile suit Le Creuset had used when he had originally fought Kira, the Providence, but was decidedly more organic-looking. It was primarily dark-red in color, with much of the chest armor being dark-green, and it looked as though it had armor like the exoskeleton of a crustacean. It's faceplate looked like the mandibles of a crab, and its eyes were bright green. In its right hand, the alien machine carried a long trident made of some sort of black metal, while its left arm ended in a large lobster-like claw. On the machine's back was a large circular pack that was of a black metal like the trident, and attached to the pack were seven long iron-grey spiral seashells.

"Impressive, don't you think?" Le Creuset's voice asked over the Freedom's communication system. "My friends, the Yulock, created this mobile suit for me based on the design of the Providence. They called it, the Nemesis. Let me show you what it's capable of."

Suddenly the seashell-like devices on the pack of the Nemesis launched and zoomed around the Freedom, surrounding it a different angles. The shells then began to fire red colored laser beams from their tips at Kira, which his managed to either dodge or block with the Freedom's large shield. Though one of the lasers had managed to hit the Freedom's right shoulder plate. But the damage seemed to be minor, and after the winged mobile suit weaved its way through the cage of lasers, Kira fired at Nemesis with the Freedom's rifle. The alien mobile suit simply turned slightly to dodge the attack, and less then a second later the seashell pods returned to the back of the Nemesis.

"Not bad, it seems you haven't lost your touch. Even with all that time being stuck behind a desk." Le Creuset commented. "But this battle has only just begun. Though before we continue, there's one other little feature of this machine that I'd like to show you."

Inside the cockpit of the Freedom, one of the screens on the control panel showed the Nemesis being identified as an Earth Alliance mobile suit, and that is exactly what Kira was seeing through the Freedom's cameras. A moment later, the screen began to read the Nemesis as a ZAFT mobile suit, and that was how it appeared on camera as well. Then a second later the Nemesis had returned to its original form and the Freedom's computer read the alien machine as an unknown mobile suit.

"What is this?" Kira demanded to know.

"It's one of the most advanced features of the Nemesis. To enemy sensors I can make it appear as an ally mobile suit, or a different enemy." Le Creuset explained. "Didn't you ever wonder why the Alliance claimed that it was a ZAFT mobile suit that destroyed the Clyne Colony while the PLANTs had evidence that the suit was from the Alliance?"

"Wait… you don't mean…" Kira suddenly realized with a horrified expression.

"That's right boy. And I say this now to both you and Ms. Clyne, for our little conversation is being broadcast to the space station. It was I who destroyed the Clyne Colony!" Le Creuset gloated. "I brought forth the catalyst for another war! And I was also the one who destroyed the peace envoy that was sent to try and speak with the Alliance!"

"But… all those people…" Kira said, still shocked by the revelation of what caused war. Anger began to rise up within him as the masked man laughed over the com-line. "How… could you? HOW COULD YOU?"

With that, the Freedom fired all of its weaponry at the Nemesis. In response, the Nemesis raised and opened the claw on its left arm and suddenly the massive blast of energy was pulled into it. Kira was shocked to see the alien mobile suit was completely unharmed.

"It seems I struck a nerve. Now take this!" Le Creuset called out as the Nemesis fired a bolt of purple electricity from its trident. Kira blocked the attack with the Freedom's shield, which exploded upon being hit. "Our battle is only beginning Kira! And when it's over you will be destroyed and I shall watch as the human race kills itself by its own hand!"

* * *

**Author's Note:** This is one of those times when I wish this site would let us use illustrations in our stories. That way I could show the Nemesis in more detail. Anyway, the design of Le Creuset's new Gundam was one of the first things I had decided upon when I started planning this story. I wanted it to be like the Providence yet far more powerful, not to mention more alien. The reason why the Nemesis has a sort of underwater motif though is because of the Cthulhu-esq appearance of the Yulock.

The battle continues next chapter. But until then, please review and let me know what you think.


	7. The Divine Gundam, Seraphim

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam SEED or anything from the Gundam franchise.

* * *

Chapter 7: The Divine Gundam, Seraphim

Inside the space station, Lacus had heard what Le Creuset had revealed to Kira, that he was the one who destroyed the Clyne Colony and plunged Earth and the PLANTs into another war. Lacus couldn't blame Kira, for lashing out in the battle like he had just done, for a part of her wanted to lash out herself. It was one thing to kill an enemy soldier of the battlefield, but to kill several innocent people without any good reason was unforgivable. Besides, Le Creuset wasn't someone who could be reasoned with, that much Lacus knew. And she also knew that if Kira went easy on the masked maniac, he would most likely be killed.

At that moment, Lacus wished with all her heart that there were something she could do to help Kira. But she knew that even if she wasn't bound up the way she was, there was little she could do. Lacus was snapped from her thoughts by another flash that went off in her mind, and suddenly the pink-haired songstress felt another presence near her. It was different from Kira and Le Creuset, it was not a threatening presence but Lacus felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Before Lacus could figure out who it was though, a golden spear suddenly flew in from the doorway and hit the wall behind her, cutting the cable that was holding her arms up in the process.

"Who's there?" Lacus asked, a hint of fear in her voice. In answer to her question, Gar walked into the room.

"You needn't be afraid Chairwoman Clyne. I mean you no harm." Gar assured her as he walked up. "My name is Gar Thorson, and I have come to help. If you'll allow me, I can free your hands from their bindings."

Hesitantly, Lacus raised her arms forward. Gar then got out what at first looked like a silver pen, and then cut the metal cable still tying her wrists together with a red laser. Once Lacus's hands were free, Gar put away his laser cutter and raised his right hand forward. A second later, the golden spear he had thrown suddenly returned to his hand. It was then that Lacus got a better look at the weapon. It looked to be made completely out of gold, and had what looked like small-feathered wings near the end of the head.

"What is that?" Lacus asked.

"This is the spear, Gungnir." Gar explained. "It is what you could call, a family heirloom, that was entrusted to me."

"Just who are you Mr. Thorson?" Lacus asked again. Before Gar could respond, Le Creuset's mad laughter sounded over the station's intercom.

"I'm afraid there is no time at the moment to explain any of that." Gar told her. "Right now I must go and assist Commander Yamato. The mobile suit Le Creuset is using was made using Yulock technology, which I'm afraid is more advanced than the Strike Freedom. For now, I request that you stay aboard the station, Chairwoman. I will attempt to return as soon as I can."

With that, Gar rushed out of the room. Lacus attempted to follow, but as soon as she got to the doorway, he was gone. Not wanting to remain in that room any longer, Lacus went down the corridor to her right until she came to a window. There she could see Kira's battle with Le Creuset, and from what she could tell it wasn't looking good.

* * *

Outside the station, the Freedom was flying full speed at the Nemesis, firing its rifle. The Nemesis shielded the shots with its claw and deployed its seashell pods, which flew around and began firing at all angles. One pod managed to blow up the Freedom's rifle, while another destroyed the white mobile suit's lower left leg. The Nemesis then shot another bolt of electricity with its trident. The Freedom tried to block the attack with an energy shield generation from its left forearm, but the force of the energy overloaded the shield and caused said forearm to explode.

"This war is all your fault!" Kira shouted as the Freedom launched its blue wings from its body. The wings began to fire at the Nemesis, but the alien mobile suit dodged the attacks at the same time its seashell pods returned to their pack.

"All I did was remind both sides of how much they hated each other!" Le Creuset retorted as the Nemesis fired another blast from its trident. The Freedom managed to doge the attack just as its wings returned. "It was only a matter of time before war started anew!"

"You don't know that!" Kira yelled as the Freedom flew at the Nemesis with a beam saber in its only remaining hand. But the alien mobile suit caught the Freedom's sword arm before Kira could deliver a blow.

"I know better than anyone how the human heart works!" Le Creuset claimed. "One way or another, their desires would've taken hold and a new conflict would've begun! And you and that naive girl are fools to think otherwise!"

The Nemesis's claw crushed the Freedom's remaining forearm, and the resulting explosion sent the white mobile suit back a few feet. Kira then launched the Freedom's wings again, but the Nemesis launched its own seashell pods to counter the attack, destroying all of the wings. With their targets destroyed, the shell pods returned to the Nemesis.

"And now boy, your existence shall finally come to an end." Le Cresuet said as he aimed the Nemesis's trident at the Freedom.

"Enough!" commanded a booming voice over the communication line. Both combatants looked and saw Gar floating in space above them surrounded by a golden aura.

"Gar?" a very surprised Kira exclaimed. "How're you…?"

"Who are you?" Le Creuset demanded to know.

"Someone who has come to put this world back on the right path." Gar said as he pressed a button in the center of his belt buckle. "Take flight, Seraphim!"

In an instant there was a blinding flash of golden light. The light faded, and in Gar's place was a new mobile suit that looked similar to the Freedom, but with some obvious major differences. Its lower legs, forearms, and the armor around its waist and shoulders looked as if they were made of shimmering gold. The armor on the suits chest was colored burgundy, and upon its head was a gold helmet with feathered wings on the sides. Its face had only one eye, with the right eye covered by a silver plate as if it was destroyed in battle and never repaired, while the left eye shined like a golden star. In its right hand, the suit carried a giant version of the spear, Gungnir, and on its left arm was a large golden shield. On its back were ten white-feathered wings that glowed with an intense light.

The glowing mobile suit, Seraphim, flew down in between the Freedom and the Nemesis, and fired all of its weapons in a similar manner to the Freedom. But the Nemesis opened its claw and absorbed the attack. Le Creuset then fired the Nemesis's trident again, but Gar blocked the attack with the Seraphim's shield.

"You're clearly not human. But why would you defend the human race?" Le Creuset demanded to know he deployed the Nemesis's shell pods for another attack. "Surly you've seen all that they have done! So how could you think they have a right to live?" The Seraphim's ten wings launched off its back and fired back at the shell pods, destroying Nemesis's right lower leg and at least two of the shells.

"They are a young people with still much to learn." Gar retorted as the Seraphim's wings reattached themselves. "But in order to learn, they must continue to live. And neither you nor the Yulock have a right to judge them."

"I have every right to judge the human race!" Le Creuset claimed as the Nemesis flew at the Seraphim to spear it with its trident. The angelic mobile suit blocked the attack with its shield but was forced back. "For I am the product of humanity's twisted desires! I was created to fulfill the foolish hopes of a man who wished to cheat death, and so that another man could create a being that was the personification the human race wished to be!"

"And so you think that because you were created these dark desires that you have the right to judge humans and brand them evil?" Gar asked as he fired the Seraphim's chest cannon. The Nemesis quickly moved out of the way to dodge the attack. "The human race is not as twisted as you think. It is true that they are capable of great destruction, but they also have a great capacity to create. Look at the peace that existed before you and the Yulock interfered."

"Yes, and look how easily it was destroyed!" Le Creustet pointed out as he launched the shell pods again and also fired the Nemesis's trident. The Seraphim evaded the trident blast and deployed its wings to counter the shell pods. "All it took was a destroyed colony and misplaced blame and both sides were at their throats again like before! They chose to fight again, rather than seek the truth about what happened!"

The Seraphim's wings managed to destroy another shell pod before the projectiles from both mobile suits reattached themselves to their respective machines. Just then, the Freedom zoomed in and fired its chest cannon at the back of the Nemesis, doing minimal damage. The alien mobile suit then turned and fired its trident at the Freedom, but the Seraphim quickly came and intercepted the blast with its shield.

'I'm you're opponent now, foul one!" Gar declared.

"I see, so you're here to protect Kira." Le Creuset observed. "I'm guessing you're here to protect Ms. Clyne as well. Let's find out if you can protect them both."

Suddenly the Nemesis opened its claw and fired a massive beam of energy at the space station. Kira flew the Freedom into the path of the beam in the hopes of blocking it and saving Lacus. Gar tried to follow, but his path was blocked by another trident blast from the Nemesis. Inside the defenseless structure, Lacus watched in horror as the beam came at Kira. It looked like it was all over for the violet-eyed Coordinator, but suddenly something small flew into the path of the beam and absorbed the energy.

Once the energy had been absorbed, Kira could see that the thing that had blocked the attack was the Dogu from his office, glowing with a luminous white aura. As Kira tried to figure out what was going on, the Dogu suddenly grew to three times the size of the present mobile suits. The Nemesis fired on the Dogu with its trident, but the statue was unharmed. The Dogu retaliated by firing a ball of white light from its right arm, which the Nemesis barely managed to evade. The giant then statue turned to face the Freedom and the space station and opened its eyes, shining a massive beam of white light at both. When the Dogu shut its eyes again, the Freedom was gone, and Lacus had vanished from inside the space station. Soon after Kira and Lacus vanished, the Dogu shrunk into a ball of white light and zoomed away at an unbelievable speed.

"This isn't over!" Le Creuset declared as a black mist poured from the chest of the Nemesis.

When the black cloud faded, the Nemesis was nowhere to be seen. Inside the cockpit of the Seraphim, Gar pressed a button on the side of the silver helmet he was wearing.

"Come in Agent Fifteen." Gar called.

_"Fifteen here. What's up big bro?"_ Tara asked on the other end of the line.

"The Dogu just took Lacus Clyne and Kira Yamato." Gar reported. "Le Creuset also managed to get away."

_"Oh boy. Well, at least Kira and Lacus are in better hands. It certainly makes part of our mission a lot easier."_ Tara pointed out. _"But then who knows when they'll come back. Time doesn't have any meaning in that place you know."_

"I don't imagine that they'll be kept for too long." Gar assumed. "They are after all too important to the human race. Until they return, we should keep an eye on Orb. I'll be joining you there shortly."

_"Ten-four big bro. Over and out."_ Tara replied. And with that, the Seraphim flew off towards the Earth.

* * *

On board a hidden Yulock ship, Cha-Cathock sat atop an odd red throne within a room with green coral-like walls. A brown membranous door in the room opened up, and through it looked a very displeased Le Creuset. The masked man angrily knocked a pot made out of an odd black stone off of a small table near the door.

"I understand your anger Le Creuset." Cha-Cathock said from his sitting place.

"What happened out there?" Le Creuset demanded to know. "Who were those beings that interfered?"

"The other mobile suit we detected was probably from an interstellar organization that frowns on out people's methods." Cha-Cathock explained as he got up from his throne. "As for the object that you encountered, that is from a people far more… mysterious."

"And these beings you speak of took Kira and that girl?" Le Creuset asked.

"I'm afraid so." Cha-Cathock confirmed. "But do not despair, my friend. Lacus Clyne and Kira Yamato will be returned eventually, and the mysterious ones can do only so much to interfere. And when they come back, we will be more prepared to deal with Kira Yamato and his friends from that organization. In the meantime, this development does work in our favor. Our plans can go forward unhindered."

"…Yes, with Kira and the girl out of the way, they won't be able to interfere." Le Creuset realized. Just then an electronic gong-like noise sounded over the ship's intercom.

"Mgligehh." Cha-Cathock said after going back over and pressing a button on the arm of his throne.

_"Yeligek ver mglii."_ Replied an alien voice over the intercom.

"Chelu mvolk." Cha-Cathock said in a commanding tone. A second later, the room's membranous doors stretched open and Vargas walked in with an angry expression.

"Ah, Chairman Vargas. Glad you could join us." Le Creuset greeted.

"What the hell were you thinking to Le Creuset?" Vargas demanded to know. "Abducting Lacus Clyne? Killing her fiancé?"

"Why are you so upset? This does work in your favor, you know." Le Creuset pointed out. "With Ms. Clyne out of the way, you're next in line to lead the PLANT Supreme Council."

"But it's all so reckless!" Vargas argued. "I thought we had agreed to run the council through Lacus Clyne. She's a far more influential leader than I can ever be."

"Using Ms. Clyne as our puppet would not have worked for long I suspect." Le Creuset theorized. "The time had come to get her out of the way. And now you have a tragedy that can help you rally the people."

"Even so…" Vargas began to argue.

"Do not question Le Creuset, Vargas!" Cha-Cathock interrupted. "He is your superior. And I don't think I need to tell you the consequences for disobedience."

"Of, of course." Vargas said quickly as he kneeled before Le Creuset and Cha-Cathock. "I am your loyal servant, my masters."

"Good, good." Cha-Cathock said as he sat back onto his throne. "Now then, the time has come to begin the next phase of our plan."

* * *

**Author's Note:** Gungnir is the name of the spear used by the Norse God, Odin. That's sort of a hint as to who Gar and his sister are. Anyway, I had a little difficulty writing the rest of he battle. Still, I think it turned out pretty well. So the first round between Kira and Le Creuset has come to an end. But this story is far from over. In the next chapter, things take an interesting turn. So stay tuned.

In the meantime, please review and let me know what you think.


	8. True Coordinators

**Author's Note:** We now come to a chapter that's one of the reasons for this story's M rating. You've been fairly warned.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam SEED or anything in the Gundam franchise.

* * *

Chapter 8: True Coordinators

Kira found himself standing in a vast expanse of white light. He could see nothing else, not even the ground. In fact Kira wasn't even sure if there was ground beneath him, though he had to admit he seemed to be standing on something solid. Of course whether there was ground or not hardly answered Kira's questions about where he was or how he had gotten there. The last thing he remembered was piloting the Freedom when the Dogu he had supposedly received as a gift suddenly appeared, blocked Le Creuset's attack, expanded into a large machine, and shined a white light on him. The next thing Kira knew was that he had arrived at where he was, and there was no trace of the Freedom. Even his helmet was missing.

"Hello?" Kira called out, hoping that there was someone else there. "Is anybody out there?"

"Kira?" a familiar voice asked from behind. Kira turned around and saw Lacus standing right there before him.

"Lacus!" Kira happily exclaimed as he quickly went up to her. "Are you okay?"

"I think so." Lacus replied. Though Kira wasn't entirely sure he believed her when he noticed that her shirt was torn. "Where are we though?"

"Don't know." Kira told her as he took another look around. "I'm not even sure how we got here. But at least we're both all right…. You are fine, aren't you Lacus?"

"I just told you I was." Lacus insisted with a smile that Kira felt was insincere.

"Then why is the top of your dress torn?" Kira inquired.

At that moment, Lacus suddenly broke down in tears. She threw herself at Kira, toppling them both to the ground that did or did not exist in the dimension they had found themselves in, sobbing into his chest. Kira wondered just what had happened while Lacus was captive that had caused her to break down, but then an image had popped into his mind of Cha-Cathock fondling Lacus with his tentacles. Understanding what had happened, Kira held onto Lacus tightly and reassuringly stroked the back of her head. Kira had even begun to cry a bit himself. It hurt him to see Lacus so sad and vulnerable.

The couple remained like that for quite a long time, even after Lacus had calmed down. Though just how much time had passed, Kira could not say. Time almost seemed to stand still where they were. However long it was, it was long enough for Lacus to doze off. Kira then began to think about all that had happened to bring him and Lacus to where they were at that moment. Not just about Le Creuset's miraculous resurrection or the fact that both he and Lacus had encountered living, breathing aliens, but about the mistakes he had made that probably brought them to that point. Kira felt that if he hadn't given in to the marriage regulations of the PLANTs he would've been able to protect Lacus.

_'Shinn was right, I'm such an idiot.'_ Kira thought to himself.

"You're not an idiot." Lacus spoke as she suddenly woke up, greatly surprising Kira.

"What the…? Lacus, how did you know what I was thinking?" Kira asked as he sat up.

"Huh? You mean you didn't actually say that just now?" Lacus asked, looking equally surprised.

"No, I was just thinking it." Kira confirmed. Lacus then looked into Kira's eyes.

_'Can you hear what I'm thinking?'_ Lacus's voice asked inside Kira's head.

_'Yeah, I can.'_ Kira thought back, realizing the connection that they seemed to have. _'What's going on here?'_

_'I don't know, and right now I don't care.'_ Lacus telepathically replied as she cuddled back up to Kira. _'I'm just happy we can talk like this. It makes me feel closer to you.'_

_'I feel the same way.'_ Kira agreed.

_'But you're not the idiot here Kira.'_ Lacus continued. _'I am for saying that we should go along with the marriage regulations of the PLANTs.'_

_'You did that for the good of the PLANTs.'_ Kira pointed out. _'But… maybe I should've fought for you. Then maybe none of this would've happened.'_

_'None of this is your fault Kira.'_ Lacus insisted. _'Ever since the Clyne Colony was destroyed it seems like I've been making one bad decision after another. And eventually I just started to give in to the rest of the council on what to do. I just went along with them as they led us further down the path of war. I guess now I know how Cagalli must've felt when she first ran Orb.'_

_'You were only trying to do what was best for the PLANTs.'_ Kira pointed out. _'And I guess maybe I was too. But maybe we just sacrificed too much.'_

_'Maybe.'_ Lacus agreed. _'But when I was being held captive… I was afraid that you wouldn't come to rescue me after I had… cast you aside.'_

_'Lacus, I would never do anything like that.'_ A very shocked Kira assured her. _'Sure it hurt me when you decided to go along with the marriage regulations, but I'll always love you no matter what. And I would do anything to save you if you were in danger.'_

_'Oh Kira.'_ Lacus thought tearfully.

At that moment, both could sense a need within the other. And they instantly became locked in a passionate kiss. Their tongues mingled until their lungs cried out for air and they were forced to break apart. Kira took the opportunity though to begin kissing Lacus's neck and move to her collarbone, earning soft moans from the pink-haired songstress. Eventually Kira removed what was left of Lacus's top along with her bra, exposing her magnificent breasts. He massaged those breasts as they once again became locked in another opened mouth kiss.

Before either of them knew it, after an uncertain amount of time had passed, both of them were naked, though Lacus still had her gold wing-shaped hairclip. Kira got on top of Lacus, and as he slid his hardened rod into her something wonderfully unexpected happened. In addition to the feeling of sliding himself into Lacus's opening, Kira also felt what Lacus was experiencing, what she felt having his rod inside of her. And somehow he knew that Lacus was experiencing the same phenomenon. It was quite amazing to say the least.

Kira went slow at first, as it was taking both of them a bit to get used to this experience. It was hardly their first time, as they had done it once aboard the Eternal after the final battle of the second war. But this was a completely new experience for the both of them. As time went on though, Kira picked up the pace, and before long Lacus locked her legs around Kira's waist and grabbed onto his shoulders. Once that had happened, something exploded in their minds and their pupils dilated. Both Kira and Lacus had gone into SEED mode, and when that happened their psychic bond intensified. The sensations they were feeling intensified and they could see themselves in addition to each other, as if they were looking at themselves through the other's eyes.

They were also seeing bits of each other's memories. It was as if their minds had somehow become one. The couple continued to go at it for quite some time, though how long they could not say. But it had felt like an eternity since they began. Their bodies had become covered in sweat. At long last they could feel that they were getting close to the edge. Yet it seemed to be taking them a very long time to get there. The couple felt locked in a sort of paradox, feeling that they might go mad if they didn't reach their peak soon, yet wanting the experience to last as long as possible. But one eternity later, they both climaxed, quite hard. And as each felt both their own orgasm and their partner's, everything went white and they passed out.

* * *

An unknown amount of time later, Kira woke up to find himself in a bed with white sheets under a blue star-filled sky. Lacus was still asleep and cuddled up next to him. Kira instantly remembered the transcendent experience that he and Lacus shared before passing out. He did wonder just how the two of them had ended up in the bed they were in, but decided it could wait for a while. Lacus looked far too peaceful to disturb. In time though, Lacus slowly stirred awake and looked at Kira.

_'Hey there.'_ Lacus's greeted telepathically. It soon became clear that a telepathic link between the two still existed.

_'Hey.'_ Kira greeted back as he kissed Lacus on the forehead. _'Did you sleep well?'_

_'Uh-huh.'_ Lacus replied. She then realized that their surroundings were quite different. _'Where are we now?'_

_'No clue.'_ Kira answered as both he and Lacus sat up to take a better look around.

The couple quickly found that there was once again no evidence of ground. It seemed that the bed they were in was floating through space. To their right they saw a white wooden door that did not seem attached to any wall. There was a similar door right across the bed only a few feet away. Suddenly a familiar pink ball-shaped robot bounced up onto the foot of the bed, which both Lacus and Kira recognized as Lacus's faithful Haro, Mr. Pink. It was soon joined by Kira's Birdy, which perched itself atop the gold barred headboard of the bed.

_'What are these two doing here?'_ Lacus wondered.

"Haro!" Mr. Pink cried as it bounced off the bed and went over to the door on the other side of the abstract room.

Kira got out of bed and walked over to the door. Upon opening it he found what looked to be a closet filled with white clothes.

_'I guess we should get dressed now.'_ Kira suggested.

_'Good idea.'_ Lacus agreed.

A few minutes later, after Kira went through the closet and picked out appropriate attire for both of them, the couple had finally covered themselves. Lacus ended up with a simple white dress and sandals, while Kira had put on a pair of white shoes, white jeans, and a white long-sleeved buttoned shirt. He left the top two buttons undone, revealing some of his chest. Once they had gotten dressed, Mr. Pink bounced over to the other door. The couple followed the small pink robot over and Kira opened the door. On the other side, they found what looked like a road made of white light. Suddenly, Birdy flew off out through the door over the road.

"Follow." Mr. Pink said as it bounced after Birdy.

After shrugging to one another, Lacus and Kira decided to follow the two mechanical pets down the road. They followed the path for what seemed like several minutes until finally coming to a fountain made out of a sort of white crystal. Gathered together near this fountain in small groups were tall slender figures that looked as if they were made of white light. They did not seem to have faces, or at least none that Lacus and Kira could make out. The couple could not even tell if they were male or female. But they were wearing what looked to be transparent white robes. As soon as Mr. Pink bounced up in Lacus's hands and Birdy perched itself on Kira's shoulder, five of the figures noticed the couple's arrival and approached them.

"Be not afraid Lacus Clyne, Kira Yamato. We mean you know harm." The center figure in the group said in a soothing male voice. "I'm sure you must have many questions."

"Who are you?" Kira asked, proving the being to be right. "And what is this place?"

"We… are the Zsagel." Answered the being in the center. "And right now you are in our realm, the Domain of Light."

"So… was that thing, the Dogu, sent by all of you?" Kira asked.

"The objects you know as Dogu are what you might call mechanical probes, which we created to observe and if necessary interact with other worlds." The Zsagel on the far right explained in an elderly male voice. "The primitive people from your world saw many of these probes and made replicas out of clay."

"The Dogu you found in your office was sent by us to observe you, and if necessary provide rescue if necessary." The middle right Zsagel continued, speaking in a young high-pitched male voice. "During your battle with Rau Le Creuset when it looked like the two of you would be destroyed, the Dogu's protection program activated and sent you into what we call, the Light of Creation."

"It is because of your time in the Light of Creation that your latent mental abilities have now been fully awakened, allowing you to share a telepathic bond." Explained the Zsagel on the far left in the voice of a kindly old woman.

"But why protect us?" Lacus asked. "Why bring us here?"

"Because the two of you are vital to the continuation of the human race." The middle left Zsagel said in a young female voice.

"It was no mere coincidence that the two of you were drawn together." The center Zsagel continued. "Fate led you to one another so that you made lead the human race into the future."

"That is why we could not allow neither the flawed laws of your society, nor the actions of those who wish to create war and destroy humanity to tear your union asunder." Said the far right Zagel. "For you are the True Coordinators."

"But how can you think that after all the mistakes we've made?" Lacus pointed out. "Despite everything we tried to do, the war only continued to get worse."

"Only because the Yulock and Rau Le Creuset interfered with your actions." The Zsagel on the far left told them. "You both had been fighting a battle you had no knowledge was going on. And because you did not know, you were losing. And thus you had lost faith in yourselves."

"But now that you know more of what you are up against, you must set the human race back on the proper path." The center Zsagel added. "If you do not, there will be no future for the human race, or for your progeny."

"Wait, what do you mean progeny?" Kira interrupted. At this the Zsagel looked at each other for a moment, as if hesitant to answer.

"You both must understand that we did not influence you while you were in the Light of Creation." The Zsagel on the far left began. "But what did occur in the light was what we had hoped would happen."

"We still don't understand." Lacus told them.

"When two beings deeply in love with one another, as you two are, share of each other within the Light of Creation, as you two did, life is formed where it might normally not be." The center Zsagel finally explained.

"Hold on!" Kira exclaimed as he suddenly realized what the Zsagel were implying. "Are you saying that Lacus is pregnant?"

"Yes, and you are the father of that child." The Zsagel on the far right confirmed.

Both Kira and Lacus were utterly stunned by this news. It was so shocking that Kira had almost fainted. Before they were being forced to split up so that Lacus could have a child, but suddenly everything had turned around and they had become expectant parents.

"And now we will return you to your world." The center Zsagel said. "We will be watching, and give you aid if and when it is needed."

Suddenly Lacus and Kira were enveloped in a blinding flash of white light. When it faded, the couple found that they were in what looked like the living room of a small house. The lights in the room were off, suggesting that nobody was home.

_'Where are we now?'_ Lacus wondered.

_'I recognize this place.'_ Kira replied telepathically. _'This is Athrun's house in Orb.'_

Suddenly the door to the house opened and the lights came on. Standing in the doorway holding a full grocery bag was a young man with dark-blue hair that stopped short of his shoulder's and emerald eyes, wearing a brown jacket, yellow shirt, and black slacks. Kira and Lacus immediately recognized this person as their old friend, Athrun Zala. Athrun dropped the grocery bag he was holding when he noticed Lacus and Kira standing there.

"Kira… Lacus…" a shocked Athrun spoke.

"Uh, hey Athrun." Kira greeted. "I hope you don't mind that we dropped by."

"Where have the two of you been all this time?" Athrun asked with a hint of anger in his voice.

"That's a little hard to explain." Kira replied as he rubbed the back of his head.

"Hold on, what do you mean by 'all this time' Athrun?" Lacus asked.

"Don't pretend like you don't know what I'm talking about!" Athrun told them. "Where the hell have you been for the past three months?"

* * *

**Author's Note:** We'll leave off there for now. Admittedly, one my reasons behind writing this story was so that this site would have an M rated Lacus and Kira fic that wasn't just a straight-up lemon. I threw a sort of mind meld into the "encounter" for something a little different. Anyway, the Zsagel are another one of my older ideas. They were inspired by this race of aliens that appeared in the original _Battlestar Galactica_ series. Well, in the next chapter we begin the second act of this little tale. This next arc will focus a little less on Lacus and Kira and give the spotlight to some other characters. Some will be returning favorites, and others will be new characters that I came up with for this story. So stay tuned.

And in the meantime, please review and let me know what you think.


	9. Descendants of the Gods

**Author's Note:** We now come to the second act of our little tale. If this were the actual anime, it would be the part where the opening and closing themes would be changed. From what to what, I don't know. Anyway, a lot of this chapter is going to be exposition. Here, we finally learn more about the mysterious Gar Thorson.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam SEED, nor do I own anything from the Gundam franchise.

* * *

**ACT II: Gods and Devils**

Chapter 9: Descendants of the Gods

Things had taken a very strange turn for Kira and Lacus, and things had already gotten strange enough. They had after all already encountered alien beings, confronted a masked psychopath who they had thought long dead, and spent time in an otherworldly dimension. Then after being returned to Earth and finding themselves in Athrun's house, the couple had learned from Athrun that they had been missing for three months. Not long after Athrun had come in, the three had sat down and Kira and Lacus began to tell him what had happened. Needless to say, Athrun had found their story a little on the unbelievable side.

"Do you honestly expect me to buy this?" Athrun exclaimed as he got back to his feet. "Aliens? Commander Le Creuset? Other dimensions?"

"I know how hard this must be to believe Athrun, but it is what happened." Kira said in a calm tone.

"Athrun, do you really think that Kira and I are the kind of people to make a story like that?" Lacus pointed out.

"…No, of course not." Athrun calmly admitted as he turned away from them. "Sorry I reacted that way. Things have been pretty tense lately."

"Perhaps you should tell us what's been going on since we left." Lacus suggested.

"Right, of course." Athrun agreed as he turned back to face them again. "I guess it all started about four days after you two disappeared. The PLANTs were still in an uproar and the chairman of the defense committee at the time, Ian Vargas, claimed that he council had received evidence that the Alliance was responsible for Lacus' abduction. The Alliance of course denied this, and the war started to go down hill after that. About two weeks after this 'evidence' was introduced, Vargas became the new chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council."

"_Vargas_ is in charge of the PLANTs now?" a very shocked Kira exclaimed.

"Yeah, and the moment he took office he's been fanning the flames of the war." Athrun gravely confirmed. "All in the name of avenging Lacus and all the people who died when the Clyne Colony was destroyed. It's been like in the first war all over again. Orb has been on high alert for the past month and a half."

"How's Cagalli been doing since all this happened?" Kira asked.

"Actually, I haven't spoken to Cagalli in quite a long time." Athrun said with a hint of sadness in his eyes. "Things haven't exactly been going well between us."

"Maybe we should all go see her tomorrow." Kira suggested.

Before anyone could respond, both Kira and Athrun heard the sound of a twig snap outside the open window in the room. Suddenly Athurn noticed the red dot from a laser site shining on the side of Lacus' head.

"Lacus, get down!" Athrun cried.

Within less then a second, Kira dove at Lacus and knocked her out of the couch she was sitting in and down to the floor. A single bullet flew through the window and hit the wall a moment later.

"Are you okay?" Kira asked.

"I think so." A very startled Lacus answered.

Athrun meanwhile had dove to the floor and went over to a small metal box he kept near the door under a table. As quickly as he could, Athrun unlocked the box and retrieved a gun. He crawled over to the open window and as fast as he could, got back up and fired two shots outside in the hope of hitting the sniper.

"We have to get out of here!" Athrun told the other two. "Go out the back! I'll be right behind you!"

Kira and Lacus got up and ran towards the back door through the kitchen, followed closely by Birdy and Mr. Pink. Athrun fired two more shots out the window before running after them. Soon all three had gotten outside behind the back of the house. But before they could get very far, three men in black suits carrying guns blocked their path. Six other armed gentlemen soon showed up and the trio found themselves surrounded.

"Nice try, but not good enough." One of men standing in front of them said. "You might wanna say your prayers."

Just as the men were about to pull their triggers, a flash went off in both Kira and Lacus' minds and they felt a familiar presence. Suddenly a figure wearing mostly white jumped out of the bushes behind the three men in black and tackled the one in the middle to the ground, knocking him out in the process. In a flash, the attack jumped back to his feet, delivered a roundhouse kick to the stomach of the armed man on his right, followed by an uppercut to remaining thug's jaw. Both Kira and Lacus quickly recognized who the attacker was.

"Gar?" a surprised Kira asked.

"It is good to see you again sir." Gar replied after quickly turning to face them.

"You don't have to be so formal with him big bro!" a female voice called down. "You're not pretending to be his aid anymore ya know!"

Everyone, including the remaining thugs, looked up and saw standing on the roof of the house under the moonlight a young woman who stood at about four and a half feet tall and looked to be in her very early twenties. She had short blonde hair that looked like spun gold and iron-grey eyes. The young woman was wearing an outfit similar to Gar's; only it included an odd silver hammer-shaped pendant that hung around her neck.

"Get her!" one of the thugs ordered.

As soon as the men in black began to fire up at the roof, the young woman leapt off, flipped around in the air, and delivered a powerful flying kick to one of the thugs. She then tackled the thug on her right to the ground and knocked him out with her fist. Before the thug on her left could fire a shot, the blonde jumped up and kicked the gun out of his hand.

"You guys better run while you can." The young woman told the remaining thugs. "Otherwise I might start to get mad."

"Yeah right! Like we're afraid of a little girl like you." Laughed a bald thug standing only a few feet away. The young woman's expression twisted into one of murderous rage at the remark.

"What… did you… just call me?" the blonde asked through gritted teeth. Gar sighed heavily as she clutched the pendant around her neck. In a flash of gold light, the pendant had changed into an odd sledgehammer with a head made out of a sort of strange silver metal and a short gold hammer. "TASTE THE POWER OF MJOLNIR YOU ASSHOLES!"

The blonde slammed the hammer into the ground with such force that it sent a wave of earth at the remaining thugs, sending them five feet into the air. She walked away towards Kira and the others as the men in black hit the ground, grumbling to herself as the hammer she held turned back into a pendant.

"Tara, don't you think you went a little overboard?" Gar asked the young woman as he crossed his arms.

"Those jerks were asking for it!" Tara replied as she put the pendant back around her neck. "Besides, it's not like I called down a bunch of lightning bolts to zap them."

"Who are you people?" Athrun interrupted.

"There will be time to explain that later Athrun Zala." Gar answered. "Right now we must leave immediately. There is an abandoned cabin not far from this location. We can stay there for the night."

"And we're just supposed to trust you?" Athrun asked with a suspicious glare.

"Really? You ask that after my brother and I just wiped the floor with the guys who're about to kill you?" Tara pointed out, sounding rather offended.

"It's okay Athrun, we can trust them." Kira assured him. "Gar helped me out when I was fighting Le Creuset. He helped Lacus too."

"Kira, are you sure?" Athrun asked.

"If they wanted to kill us, they would've done it already." Kira pointed out.

"…Okay then." Athrun finally agreed.

* * *

Several minutes later after walking through the forest, the group had come to a small wooden cabin that looked as though it hadn't been used in years. They entered the cabin to find a single room with only two beds and a fireplace.

"Okay, start talking." Athrun ordered Gar and Tara. "Just who are you people?"

"I'm Tara Thorson, and you already know my brother, Gar." Tara introduced. "We're with the CIA."

"Do you really expect us to believe that?" Athrun asked, sounding impatient. "The Central Intelligence Agency hasn't been around for years!"

"Central what?" Tara asked with a raised eyebrow.

"The Central Intelligence Agency. It was a cover organization that was part of the United States government before being absorbed into the Atlantic Federation's grater intelligence network." Gar explained. "Didn't you read the briefing on this planet before we got here?"

"I skimmed it." Tara told him. "Well, the pages with the pictures at least. That briefing was as long as a novel. Besides, there isn't anything about Earth that we don't already know from our ancestors."

"Your lack of knowledge on the Central Intelligence Agency would prove otherwise." Gar pointed out.

"Oh please, like knowing a bit of historical trivia is vital to our mission." Tara argued. "Sometimes you take things way too seriously big brother."

"You two aren't from Earth, are you?" Kira deduced.

"That is correct sir." Gar confirmed. "The full name of our organization is the Celestial Intervention Agency. And it is made up of people from several different worlds."

"Just what is the purpose of this agency of yours?" Lacus asked.

"To observe primitive developing worlds and monitor for any threats to the natural development of that world's society." Gar explained. "And if such threats occur, we eliminate them and try our best to correct the damage."

"Think of it like this, say you have some planet that's people are at a level of development similar to your planet's Bronze Age." Tara interjected. "Then say there's some big shot alien comes to that planet and pretends to be a god in order to exploit those poor people. Our job is to step in, kick that alien's butt or whatever it sits on, and then do our best to repair the damage it caused."

"And you're saying that some alien force is interfering with the development of our society?" Athrun asked.

"Correct, I'm afraid." Gar confirmed gravely. "Your people were finally on the verge of a lasting peace until the Yulock came. They used their agent, Rau Le Creuset, to spark a new war, thus setting your people back a great deal. Our mission now is to find a way to get rid of the Yulock and end the war."

"Are the Zsagel part of this group of yours?" Kira asked, remembering the aliens from the Domain of Light.

"Nah, those guys are way beyond even us." Tara replied. "Nobody really knows much about them, except that they seem to be a force of good. But the truth is, they made our mission way easier."

"What do you mean?" Kira asked.

"Part of our mission was to get you and Chairwoman Clyne back together so that you may lead the human race." Gar admitted. "Unfortunately that part of the mission was proving far more difficult than I realized."

"I knew I should've taken that part of the mission." Tara cut in. "Would've taken care of it five days. I had the perfect plan."

"Getting them together and intoxicated was far from the perfect plan." Gar told her.

"Well it was a better plan than whatever it was you were trying to do." Tara argued. "Either way it doesn't matter. Not only are those two back together, our Ms. Clyne is now pregnant. It's more than we could've hoped for."

"Wait, you're pregnant Lacus?" a startled Athrun asked.

"Oh, yes. Kira and I forgot to mention that part I guess." Lacus replied, still getting used to the fact that she was going to become a mother. "And before you ask, Kira is the father."

"I see…" Athrun replied. "Well then, congratulations I guess."

"Thanks." Kira and Lacus said together.

"Okay then, so you two are really aliens." Athrun said, turning back to Gar and Tara.

"Yep, we may look like you guys, but we're pretty different physically." Tara confirmed. "For one thing we age a lot slower than you. Go ahead, guess how old I am."

"Uh, a thousand?" Kira guessed rather jokingly. A furious expression came to Tara's face.

"WHY ARE THEY ALWAYS OVER WHEN I ASK THEM TO GUESS?" Tara yelled as she scooped up an empty pot in the room and threw it in Kira's direction. "I'm only two-hundred and fifty-three, you jerk!"

"Sorry." A frightened Kira quickly apologized.

"I am only four years older than Tara." Gar interjected. "But as you can see, we look far younger."

"That hammer Tara used when you fought those men, she called it Mjolnir." Athrun recalled. "I remember reading that name in mythology once. It was the name of the hammer used by the Norse God, Thor."

"You are correct Athrun Zala, Mjolnir at one time was the hammer of Thor." Gar confirmed. "The mythological beings you know as the Norse Gods were actually people from our home world. They came to this planet while fighting a great war, and inadvertently became known as gods to the primitive cultures of the time and region they appeared. Tara and I are descendants of Thor, and by extension his father, Odin."

"And that's why Tara has that hammer?" Kira asked.

"Yep, I sort of inherited it." Tara confirmed. "And before you ask, the thing's not magic. It's a level of technology that's a little beyond anything you might understand."

"How did you inherit it, if you don't mind me asking." Kira inquired.

"In a way nobody ever expected." Gar said as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

* * *

_Fifty years before on the planet known as Asgard, Gar, who at the time was wearing a gold tunic and brown leather pants stood in a stone cathedral-like room before a short pedestal that had Mjolnir on it. On the far wall on the other side of the room was a large portrait of a man with long red hair and a beard. This of course was a portrait of Gar's honored ancestor, Thor. Entering the room was a muscular man who was about eight feet tall with short black hair and a beard, wearing a sleeveless grey shirt and black pants._

_"So you actually showed up, eh cousin Gar?" said the tall man with an amused expression._

_"It is my duty as a member of the family, cousin Volkav." Gar replied. "Our grandfather requested that I come. And as he is the elder of our family, I have no right to refuse."_

_"Funny, I didn't think you wanted any part of this test." Volkav noted. "Not that it matters though. There's no way you'll be able to wield Mjolnier."_

_At that moment, an old man with a long white beard wearing golden robes entered the room. He walked slowly with a long gnarled wooden staff and had a solemn expression. Gar and Volkav bowed reverently to the old man as he walked up behind the pedestal._

_"Gar, Volkav, it is good to see you both here on this day." The old man said to them._

_"It is an honor to be here, grandfather." Volkav replied._

_"Long ago near the end of our great war with the Jotunn, our noble ancestor Thor died in great and terrible battle." Gar's grandfather began. "With his last breath before dying, Thor encoded his hammer, Mjolnir, so that it may only be wielded by members of his line. But only by the members of his line who can use the hammer's full power. Only those of our family who can lift the hammer are the ones who can wield it. Which is why the two of you have come here today, to see if you are worthy of our ancestor's legacy. Now then, which of you wishes to try to lift the hammer first?"_

_"I shall go first, grandfather." Volkav volunteered._

_"I had a feeling you would offer yourself first, Volkov." Gar's grandfather replied. "You have always been eager to prove yourself. Very well, but be aware that though your body is strong, you may not be the one."_

_"We'll see about that." Volkov said smugly._

_Gar's burly cousin walked over to the pedestal and grabbed onto the handle of the hammer. He gave the handle a strong pull, but could not lift it. Volkov tried using both hands, but the sacred hammer still would not move. After what seemed like five minutes, a red-faced Volkov finally let go._

_"It seems that you were not worthy, Volkov." Gar's grandfather commented. "A shame, but it is how it is. It is now your turn to try, Gar."_

_"With all due respect, grandfather, I still do not believe I am the one to wield Mjolnier." Gar admitted._

_"And why is that, my boy?" Gar's grandfather asked._

_"While it is a great honor to wield the hammer of our ancestor, I have never felt that it is within my destiny." Gar answered. "I've just never had any desire for it."_

_"Hmm… your reluctance is interesting, Gar." His grandfather noted. "It has been the dream of every member of our family to wield Mjolnir. But perhaps the one who wishes not to wield the hammer is the one who is most worthy to wield it."_

_"I say it's pointless to try, grandfather." Volkov commented. "If I can't pick it up, there's no way Gar can. But go ahead and try Gar. That is why you're here, isn't it?"_

_Hesitantly, Gar approached the pedestal and looked at the hammer. And just as he was about to reach for the handle, the large doors to room slammed open behind Gar. Gar and his two family members turned to see Tara standing in the doorway wearing a strapless gold mini-dress and heels. A goofy expression was on her face._

_"What's goin' on here, a funeral?" a clearly drunk Tara asked._

_"Tara, your mother said you were attending a friend's wedding celebration." Her grandfather said to her._

_"That, that party got to be a real drag, granddad." Tara replied as she staggered in. "Why's everyone so serious? Oh, it's that hammer thing, right?"_

_"Tara, you're drunk!" Gar exclaimed._

_"What? I'm not, I'm not drunk." Tara laughed. "I only had, let's see, one, two, three… fifty glasses of ale. Oh wait, I guess I am drunk. But I'm, I'm not as think as you drunk, I mean drunk as you think I am. Go on with your thing, don't, don't mind me."_

_"Gar was about to try and lift Mjolnir." Volkav informed his drunken cousin. "Not that he'll be able to."_

_"Oh, and why, why is that, cousin?" Tara asked._

_"Because I couldn't lift it, which means Gar has no chance." Volkav said smugly._

_"Pfft, well of course you couldn't lift the thing." Tara replied. "You probably need a brain to use it, which is why Gar… is… perfect for this."_

_"As if a scrawny weakling like him could wield the hammer of our forefather." Volkav scoffed._

_"Are, are you gonna take that from this oaf, big brother?" Tara asked. "Go ahead and grab that hammer and whack him upside the head with it."_

_"Your brother is reluctant to try and lift the hammer." Gar and Tara's grandfather admitted._

_"Probably because he's afraid of showing just how weak he really is." Volkov taunted._

_"Oh that is it, brother! You, you gotta do it now." Tara declared. "Did you, did you hear what that oaf just did? He called you out. You, you gotta do it now. Go on, lift that thing and knock that smug grin off Volkov's face!"_

_"Yes, go on Gar. See if you have what it takes to wield the hammer and face me." Volkav dared._

_"I have no wish to face you, Volkav." Gar told him._

_"Yes, because you're afraid." Volkav taunted._

_"Look, I'll show you how it's done, brother." Tara said as she staggered over to the pedestal. "All you gotta do is grab the thing," she said as she grasped the handle, "and give it one big yank."_

_With that yank, Tara lifted the hammer from its hallowed resting place, causing the jaws of her relatives to drop, even Gar's. Her grandfather was so stunned that he dropped his walking stick. With the drunken haze over her mind, it took Tara a moment to realize just what she had done._

_"You… you lifted Mjolnir!" their grandfather exclaimed._

_"Impossible!" Volkov declared. "How can this be?"_

_"Oh wow, I guess you gotta be hammered to wield the hammer. Get it?" Tara laughed._

* * *

"…That afternoon is still a blur to me." Tara said in the present. Kira, Lacus, and Athrun simply looked stunned.

"After that day, Tara began her training to wield Mjolnir." Gar continued. "As for me, I began a different sort of training, and eventually I was called again by our grandfather to see if I could wield the spear of Odin, Gungnir, which I was able to do. Ten years later, Tara and I joined the CIA to put our abilities to good use."

"Okay, well I guess that more than answer the question of who you two are." Athrun spoke. "But the question now is what do we do?"

"Now we must figure out a way to end this war the Yulock have started before your people destroy themselves." Gar told them.

* * *

**Author's Note:** The concept behind Gar and Tara is another old idea of mine that I had always intended to be a part of this story. I had envisioned a pair of agents from an intergalactic covert police force that would show up to help Kira and the others. One of them was a young woman who'd be a sort of comical hero, and the other would be a guy who'd act as her straight man. I had also come up with the name of the organization they were from as an attempt at wordplay. Beyond all that though, I hadn't really come up with any more on their characters than that, not even their relationship or names. Then recently, I had watched the movie, _Thor_ (which I thought kinda sucked, despite the fact that I liked the _Avengers_ movie) and decided to use the who "mythological gods were aliens" thing and have Gar and Tara be descendants of Thor and Odin.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	10. Devil Gundams

**Author's Note:** This chapter mostly wraps up the exposition and introduces some new characters. Before getting started though, I want to talk a little about the title of this chapter. In another Gundam series, _Mobile Fighter G Gundam_ (which I have never seen, but have read about) there was a mobile suit called the Devil Gundam (Dark Gundam in the dub). It was sort of the main antagonist in that series, one that makes me want to watch it. Anyway, the mobile suits that are about to appear in this chapter are based somewhat on the Devil Gundam from _Mobile Fighter G_.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam SEED or anything from the Gundam franchise (imagine how rich I'd be if I did).

* * *

Chapter 10: Devil Gundams

The moon hung high over the small cabin that Kira and the others had taken refuge in for the night. Inside, the flow of conversation had come to a pause. Kira, Lacus, and Athrun all needed a few minutes to absorb what they had learned from their alien bodyguards. Of course Kira and Lacus had already learned that the human race was not alone in the universe, but this fact was still very new to Athrun. But for all three of them, there was one question that continued to hang over their minds.

"Gar, just who are the Yulock?" Kira asked, finally breaking the silence. "What do they want from us?"

"You encountered a Yulock on your way to save Ms. Clyne." Gar reminded him, though Kira had wished he hadn't. The last thing Kira wanted to remember was the thing that had posed as Flay. "The Yulock are one of the most insidious races in the Galaxy, and they often ignore interstellar laws to get what they want. And as for what they want from the human race, all they want is your death and your planet."

"The Yulock usually work like this." Tara continued. "They find a primitive world and start a war between its inhabitants and make each side think it was the other side's fault. Then they cause the war to escalate until both sides are dead. After that, the Yulock move in and take the planet for themselves."

"How horrible!" Lacus commented.

"So now these Yulock are running this scheme with Earth and the PLANTs." Athrun realized.

"Yes, and they have help." Gar revealed. "Very often, the Yulock will recruit natives of the planet they wish to procure in order to fan the flames of the planet's war."

"You mean like Rau Le Creuset." Kira noted, his eyes narrowing at the thought of the masked man.

"Rau Le Creuset is a bit different. The Yulock seem to think of him as one of their own kind." Gar commented. "You are correct though sir, he is one such example. But the agents I speak of are humans that have been promised things such as power, wealth, and long life in exchange for helping to bring the downfall of their own people. And after witnessing what has transpired in the last three months, I am certain that Ian Vargas is such an agent."

"That would seem to fit." Athrun agreed. "But I'm guessing he's not the only one, is he?"

"Nope, some of the guys running the Alliance are probably agents too." Tara confirmed. "And a few military officers on both sides, and maybe even some politician's secretary. They could be in your media too."

"Unfortunately, Vargas is the only agent we're sure of." Gar told them.

"So what do you suggest we do about this?" Lacus asked.

"At the moment, we don't know." Gar replied. "And there is another problem that must be considered as well."

"What other problem?" Kira asked, not liking where the conversation was headed.

"Sometimes, when the Yulock find a primitive world with fairly advanced weapons technology, like Earth, they use that technology to their advantage." Tara explained. "They give the inhabitants bits of their own technology so the poor suckers can use it to augment their weapons. Then when it's all over, they take whatever new weapons created from the war and sell on the interstellar black market to the highest bidder."

"So they're using us to build new weapons too?" an outraged Lacus asked.

"Yes, and they may have already done so." Gar gravely confirmed. "This war has been going on for quite some time now. It may only be a matter of time before such weapons are deployed on the battlefield."

* * *

Elsewhere in the world, seventeen-year-old Pamela Cloud sat looking out the window of a military helicopter that was flying out over the ocean. She wasn't really looking at the view outside; for all there was to see was endless sea, the night sky, and the moon. What Pamela was really looking at was her own reflection. She found that she looked more or less like she normally did, fair skin, pale green eyes, curly white hair that went down just past her shoulders. But what Pamela was trying to get used to, was the uniform she was wearing. Only a day before she was only a mere cadet in the Alliance military, but then after taking some odd tests Pamela had been made a full fledged mobile suit pilot with the rank of ensign.

After that, Pamela was put on some sort of special team that was to be assigned to a ship in space. It was all happening so fast for her. Pamela turned her attention away from the window and looked to the seat next to her. In that seat was a young man who looked to be about her age with very short black hair and brown eyes wearing a white Alliance uniform. He wore a serious, almost stone-faced expression. Pamela didn't know too much about this individual. Only that his name was Jeffery Wong and that he was an ensign like her. Pamela assumed that he was a part of this team she was put on.

Sitting in the seat across from Jeffery was a man who looked to be in his early forties with tan skin, dark-brown hair and a mustache, and an eye patch over his left eye. He was wearing the uniform of an Alliance captain. The man had earlier introduced himself to Pamela as Captain Milo Desoto, the commander of the ship she and her team had been assigned to. Captain Desoto glanced up from a file folder he was examining and noticed Pamela looking at him.

"Something on your mind Ensign Cloud?" Captain Desoto asked, startling Pamela a bit.

"Oh, it's nothing sir." Pamela answered. "I was just wondering where we're headed."

"I suppose both you and Ensign Wong have a right to know this." Captain Desoto said as he put the folder he was reading back into a metal briefcase that was on his lap. "We're heading to the location where we'll be picking up the final member of your team, Beggar's Island Penitentiary."

"A prison?" a very startled Pamela exclaimed.

"Sir, are you saying that the final member of our team is a convict?" Jeffery asked, still maintaining a calm expression.

"I'm afraid so." Captain Desoto sighed. "Frankly I don't like it a bit. Giving a common criminal the keys to a mobile suit is bad idea in my opinion. But I'm afraid orders are orders. We're all just going to have to deal with it."

"Um, what did this person do?" Pamela asked hesitantly.

"Believe me Cloud, I would tell you if I knew. But his whole record seems to have been erased." Captain Desoto told her. "All I can tell you is his name, Scott Winslow. The whole thing is just damned irregular."

"I suppose we'll just have to deal with it." Jeffery responded. "It is not our place to question our superiors."

"Yes, you're right Wong." Captain Desoto agreed with a sigh. "We're just going to have to deal with how things are."

About ten minutes later, the helicopter landed atop the roof of the prison that was their destination. The side door of the helicopter opened, and walking towards it was a young man who looked to be about seventeen or eighteen with spiked purple hair and wild gold eyes. He was wearing an Alliance uniform with the sleeves rolled up and his hands were bound behind his back. Pamela quickly deduced that this young man was the last member of her team, Scott Winslow. A prison guard armed with a rifle was escorting Scott.

When they reached the helicopter, the guard unlocked the handcuffs around Scott's wrists and the purple-haired young man boarded the vehicle, taking the seat across from Pamela. The helicopter soon took back off into the night sky.

"So, I'm guess you're the guy in charge here." Scott said to Captain Desoto with a cocky expression. "Am I right pops?"

"You will address me as Captain Desoto or Sir, understood Winslow?" a very offended Desoto scolded.

"Yeah, I hear ya." Scott replied as he stretched out his legs and put his hands behind his head. He then started to look at Pamela, which made her very uncomfortable. Pamela turned her head to look out the window to avoid Scott's gaze, causing Scott to notice and grin. "Never would've figured a pretty girl like you to be a soldier. What's your name girly?"

"…Pamela Cloud." She answered hesitantly, not once turning to look at him.

"Nice to meet ya Cloudy." Scott replied. "…Bet you're wondering what I did to land myself in the joint, aren't ya?"

"I couldn't care less." Pamela told him, though inwardly she was curious.

"I blew up my school." Scott bragged as if such an act was something to be proud of. "It was beautiful watching the thing go up in flames."

"…Was anyone hurt?" Pamela asked, actually glancing at Scott just a bit.

"Oh yeah, my asshole of a principle bought it." Scott said with a twisted laugh. "So did this one old janitor who worked there. I actually feel kinda bad about that, but oh well."

"How can you be so proud of your actions?" Jeffery asked.

"And I suppose now you're gonna preach to me now and say what I did was wrong, eh buddy?" Scott replied.

"There is nothing honorable about causing meaningless destruction." Jeffery told him. "How you became a part of this team is beyond me."

"All I know is that one day, some stuffed shirt military guys came to the joint I was locked up in and started looking for volunteers for some weird tests." Scott explained. "They said if we passed 'em, they'd give us a ticket out of there. Of course the catch was that we'd be put in the military, but I didn't give a damn about that. Hell, a job where ya blow stuff up seemed right up my ally. So I took their little tests and boom, here I am."

"Lucky you." Pamela said quietly in a sarcastic tone.

"So what about you Cloudy? How'd you get in this outfit?" Scott asked Pamela.

"I guess if you have to know, I'm a survivor of the Clyne Colony." Pamela admitted.

"Oh yeah, I heard about that." Scott replied. "They let us watch the news in the joint. So I guess you really hate those Coordinators for blowing up your home and killing your folks, huh?"

"My dearest friend was a Coordinator!" an offended Pamela said, almost shouting. "It's ZAFT that I hate. It's because of them my friend and my family died that day! They're the ones who started this war. And I'm not going to rest until I put an end to them."

"Whatever helps ya sleep at night, I guess." Scott said with a shrug.

* * *

About half an hour later, the helicopter landed at a military base on land. Captain Desoto led Pamela and her two teammates of the vehicle, where they were met by a man with greasy black hair and pale skin, wearing a white lab coat with a pink shirt, light-blue tie, black pants, and brown leather shoes.

"Captain Desoto, I presume." The man greeted. "I am Dr. Leech. I've been expecting you and your team."

"So you're the one who built these new mobile suits." Captain Desoto said as he shook Leech's hand. "Care to show them to me?"

"By all means." Leech said with a grin. "If you'll all follow me, I'll take you right to them." The strange doctor led Pamela and the others into the base, where they went down a long metal hallway. "So captain, you must be honored to be commanding an elite team."

"Frankly, I'm rather skeptical about this assignment." Captain Desoto admitted. "Though it is turning out to be a little better than I expected. I was afraid I was being assigned a new team of those Extended pilots."

"Ah yes, the Extended program." Leech chuckled. "Such a flawed concept. Our scientists were trying to enhance the power of the soldier when they should've been focused on enhancing the machine. That is what I have done."

"Just how advanced are these machines of yours?" Captain Desoto asked.

"They're based heavily on the old G-Weapons, or 'Gundams', that were introduced during the first war. But they were made using new state-of-the-art technology." Leech explained. "The most innovative of these features is the neural interface control system. With that technology, the mobile suit becomes an extension of the pilot's body."

"Sounds ambitious." Captain Desoto commented. "But are these mobile suits truly as powerful as you say they are?"

"See for yourself captain." Leech replied as they reached a pair of large metal doors.

The scientist pressed some buttons on a keypad next to the door, and in moments they slid open. The group entered a large hanger, and looming before them was a large humanoid robot that was mainly grey in color. The head had two eyes and looked to be wearing a faceplate and helmet. A single machine gun was mounted on the torso next to the left shoulder. On its right forearm was a large plate with three claw-like blades protruding from the end, while the left forearm had what looked like a shield with a single gun barrel on it. Mounted to the back were two large axes. Pamela was filled with a sense of dread as she looked at the machine.

"Captain Desoto, I give you the Vengeance." Leech proudly announced as he pointed at the machine with his right arm. "This model was made with close range combat in mind. But what it lacks in projectile weaponry, the Vengeance makes up for in stealth technology."

"Mirage Colloid?" Captain Desoto asked.

"Along with a few other surprises." Leech confirmed.

"So which of us is gonna be piloting this thing, doc?" Scott asked.

"Ms. Cloud has been selected as the pilot for the Vengeance." Leech answered.

"Me?" a surprised Pamela asked.

"You were shown to be the most compatible with the interface in this unit, Ms. Cloud." Leech explained. "I'm certain you'll be able to bring out this machine's full potential."

"So what do I get?" Scott asked, a hint of eagerness in his voice.

"Follow me, and I'll show you." Leech replied as he led the group past the Vengeance to another mobile suit that was standing behind it.

This machine had a head similar to that of the Vengeance and was also grey in color. It had two machine gun turrets mounted on the torso next to the shoulders, as well as what looked like laser cannons mounted in the chest. The shoulders of the until were large and box-like, and mounted on the forearms were two long rotating gun barrels, each with a string of ammunition running to a pack on the back.

"This unit is considered to be the opposite of the Vengeance." Leech explained. "It is armed to the teeth with the most devastating projectile weaponry the Alliance has produced. I give you, the Genocide."

"And I'm the one who'll be piloting this thing?" an excited Scott asked.

"Oh yes, Mr. Winslow." Leech confirmed. "You proved to be a perfect fit for this machine when we tested you."

"What about me, sir?" Jeffery asked.

"Ah, Mr. Wong. Don't think I forgot about you." Leech chuckled. "Follow me, and I'll be showing you the mobile suit you'll be piloting."

The scientist led the group behind the Genocide to another machine with a head that looked similar to the other two units and was also grey in color. Mounted next to its shoulders was a pair of long narrow laser cannons. Mounted at its waist were to long barrel guns.

"And now we come to the last of our three prototypes, the Discord." Leech introduced. "This unit was designed for long range attacks, but can fight at close range as well. So captain, what do you think of my creations?"

"They certainly look impressive." Captain Desoto admitted. "But I'll save my final judgment for after I see them perform in the field."

"Of course, of course." Leech replied. "I'll leave all of you to look them over while you wait for your ship to arrive. In the meantime, I have business to attend to. If you'll excuse me, captain."

"Of course, Dr." Captain Desoto replied. "I'm sure you must be a busy man."

* * *

Minutes later, Leech had gone into his darkened office. Upon his arrival, he saw Le Creuset and Cha-Cathock standing in the room.

"Ye eh chloth, my masters." Leech greeted as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"Chloth yel yikak, Dr. Leech." Cha-Cathock greeted back. "What news do you have to report?"

"I just handed the prototype mobile suits to their pilots." Leech replied. "They should be out in the field very soon."

"Good, good." A very pleased Cha-Cathock said ahs he touched his tentacle arms together. "I am eager to see how these battle mechs perform."

"Are you certain that you've chosen the right pilots?" Le Creuset asked.

"Of course, my master." Leech said as he went over to his deck and typed something into his computer. In moments, pictures of Pamela, Scott, and Jeffery appeared on a flatscreen on the wall. "These three were chosen from extensive testing. All three show indications of having the Superior Evolutionary Element Destined factor, or SEED, as it is sometimes called. Once the factor is awakened, the full power of my creations will be unleashed."

"Which of these three do you think has the most potential?" Cha-Cathock asked.

"Given the psychological profiles of the three, I believe the pilot of the Genocide to be the most promising." Leech guessed.

"Hmm… show me more on the pilot of the Vengeance." Le Creuset ordered. In moments, Pamela's info took up the whole screen.

"She certainly is a… pretty specimen." Cha-Cathock noted with lust in his alien voice.

"I remind you High Emperor that she's a valuable test subject." Le Creuset pointed out.

"Oh… yes of course." Cha-Cathock said as he quickly contained himself.

"I think our Ms. Cloud has the best potential in this group." Le Creuset said after he finished reading what was on the screen.

"With all due respect, my master, Mr. Winslow has a criminal background." Leech reminded him.

"Ah, but Ms. Cloud is a survivor of the Clyne Colony." Le Creuset noted. "I'm sure she has a deep anger within her, anger at those who she thinks was responsible for the deaths of her loved ones. And with these mobile suits stimulating the aggressive tendencies of their pilots, I'm sure Ms. Cloud's full rage will be brought to the surface."

"Yes, and when that happens, the full power of the Vengeance will be unleashed." Cha-Cathock agreed.

"All we need to do is wait for the right push." Le Creuset added. "I'm sure it's only a matter of time. We'll have to pay close attention."

"We'll I'm sure this push you speak of will happen soon." Leech assured them. "You have after all had ZAFT deploy the brother unit to the ones I created, I assume."

"Yes, the Lucifer." Le Creuset confirmed as he turned to face Leech. "Right now, it's aboard the Minerva, waiting to be sent into battle."

"Good, good." Cha-Cathock spoke. "I understand that you chose the Lucifer's pilot yourself, Le Creuset."

"In a way, High Emperor." The masked man replied. "Actually he was chosen before by an old friend. Ah, dear Gilbert. He always was good at reading people and seeing their strengths. He chose well when he made that young man the pilot of the Destiny. I'm sure we'll see great things from Shinn Asuka, great things indeed."

* * *

**Author's Note:** This is another chapter that makes me wish we could include illustrations. Anyway, one weekend years ago, my parents and I went to the theater to go see _Spider-Man 2_. During the movie, my late mother gave me a piece of advice that I'll always remember, "Never plug anything directly into your brain.". As many of you reading might've guessed, piloting these Devil Gundams isn't going to be very good for Pamela and the other two members of her team.

Please review and let me know what you think.


	11. Survivor

**Author's Note:** There was originally going to be a mobile suit battle in this chapter, but it got to be so long that I decided to save that battle for next time. Anyway, a couple new characters are going to show up here. Not to mention some old favorites.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Gundam SEED or anything from the Gundam franchise (if I did, aliens would've been brought into the thing long ago.)

* * *

Chapter 11: Survivor

The morning came, and right away Kira and the others headed for the mansion of Kira's sister, Cagalli Yula Athha, the leader of Orb. It had been a relatively short drive to the mansion, though they had to keep off the main roads to avoid being seen by any possible assassins. The group had taken a green van that Tara had been using to get around during her and Gar's mission. After almost an hour and a half they had finally arrived at their destination. Though after stopping at the intercom by the front gate, they were at a loss as to how to get in.

"Why don't we just tell Cagalli that it's Lacus and I?" Kira suggested. "She'd let us in."

"I'm afraid that's too risky sir." Gar told him. "We can't take any chances of the enemy finding out your location."

"I'm sure they'll let us in for Athrun." Lacus assumed.

"Don't count on it." Athrun said with a hint of sadness in his eyes. "Like I said, things haven't been going well between us lately."

"You guys just leave it to me. I've got it covered." Tara assured them from the driver's seat. "Gar, do me a favor and get me that file folder full of takeout menus from the glove compartment."

"What do you need that for?" Athrun asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's called a prop." Tara explained as Gar handed her the aforementioned folder.

Tara then pressed a button on the buckle of her belt and her body glowed with a golden light. When the light cleared, Tara was wearing a short-sleeved pine green jacket, white blouse, and a pine green skirt that ended just above her knees. From inside her jacket, Tara pulled out a pair of large red-framed glasses and placed them on her face.

"What's with the costume change?" Kira asked.

"Since she's been in Orb, Tara has been posing as your sister's secretary." Gar explained.

"Oh, sort of like how you posed as my aid." Kira realized.

"Precisely." Gar confirmed. "Though Tara is far better at undercover work than I am."

"That's because you have all the acting ability of a two-by-four, big brother." A slightly annoyed Tara told him. "Now will you guys shut up? I'm trying to get into character."

"Sorry." The rest of the group all told her. After a moment, Tara pressed the button of the intercom.

"Yes?" a woman's voice asked on the other end.

"Uh, this is Tara Thorson, Lady Cagalli's secretary." Tara said in a shy manner. "Can I speak to her please? Um, if she's not busy, that is."

"One moment." The woman's voice replied.

"What?" the distinct voice of Cagalli said on the other end after a moment of silence.

"Oh, uh, it's Tara, Lady Cagalli." Tara replied, sounding a bit frightened. "I have some important papers that you forgot to sign yesterday. If, uh, if it's not too much trouble…"

"You're bothering me on a Sunday morning just to sign some papers that nobody will care about fifty years from now?" Cagalli yelled over the speaker.

"It'll only take a moment." Tara assured her. "Please ma'am, these are very important."

"…Oh fine." Cagalli relented after a moment. "I'll let you in, but this had better be quick! And don't call me ma'am!" With that, the intercom went dead.

"End scene." Tara said with a triumphant smile, dropping her meek facade as the gates to the mansion opened.

"That was actually frightening." Kira commented as Tara began to drive the van in.

"Well, she's been pretty tense since the war started to heat up." Tara explained. "Either side could suddenly decide to target Orb to get its resources to try and win. Wouldn't be the first time that happened you know. Anyway, she's pretty much been taking it out on every member of her staff. You wouldn't believe how many times she's threatened to transfer someone to Orb's embassy in Siberia."

"I bet part of that's because I disappeared." Kira said sadly.

"That wasn't your fault, Kira." Lacus assured him as she put her hand on his. "Neither of us could help what happened."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." Kira agreed.

At last, the van pulled up to the front door of the mansion. After they all got out and went up the steps, the door opened and standing on the other side was a young woman with short blonde hair and gold eyes, wearing a red t-shirt and blue jeans. Kira and the others knew this young woman to be Cagalli.

"These papers had better be pretty damned…" Cagalli began to threaten, but stopped when she noticed Kira. "Kira!" she cried as she almost tackled him to the ground with a hug. Only moments after this tearful reunion however, Cagalli punched Kira in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

"What was that for?" Kira managed to breath out after falling to his knees.

"That was for letting me think you were dead!" Cagalli told him. "That's three times you've done that now! Where the hell have you been all this time?"

"Well this has been a touching reunion." Tara said sarcastically, getting Cagalli's attention. In moments, Tara flashed with a gold light, and suddenly she was wearing her original outfit.

"What the…?" uttered a stunned Cagalli.

"Cagalli, if you'll let us inside, we'll explain everything." Lacus calmly told her after helping Kira back to his feet.

* * *

A few minutes later, everyone had gone into Cagalli's study inside the mansion. There, with help from Gar and Tara, Kira and Lacus had told her the whole story of what was going on.

"Okay, let me get this straight," Cagalli said as she tried to process all that her brother and friends had told her, "aliens have set Earth and the PLANTs against each other so that the human race will kill itself off and they can take the planet."

"That is correct, Lady Cagalli." Gar confirmed.

"And you, Gar, was it? You and my secretary are another pair of aliens who're trying to stop the war." Cagalli continued. "And protect Kira and Lacus."

"Yep. It's been a real gem working for ya, by the way." Tara said sarcastically. Cagalli brushed Tara's comment off to stay on track.

"Okay, and three months ago, the psycho Kira fought at the end of the first war came back from the dead and tried to kill him and Lacus." Cagalli carried on.

"That's right." Kira confirmed.

"And then another group of aliens took the two of you to another dimension, where you got Lacus pregnant." Cagalli replied, shuddering a bit at the passing mental image of Kira and Lacus getting it on.

"Yes, and then for some reason they brought Kira and I to Orb three months after they took us." Lacus explained. "Though for us it seemed like no more than a day."

"This is just too weird." Cagalli said as she slumped into the chair behind her desk and rubbed her temples.

"You do believe us though, right?" Kira asked.

"Of course I do!" Cagalli told him. "How could I not believe it, after seeing Tara's little magic trick before?"

"Humans are so easily blown away." Tara commented with a small chuckle.

"So what're you guys planning to do now?" Cagalli asked.

"We don't know." Lacus replied. "But until we can figure it out, we were hoping we could stay here."

"Well of course." Cagalli said as she stood back up. "I'll have the maids set up a room for you two. I'm guessing that you and Kira will want the same bed, since… you know."

"We'd appreciate it." Kira replied.

"Tara and I will require accommodations here as well in order to protect your brother and Chairwoman Clyne." Gar requested.

"Yeah, sure." Cagalli agreed as she walked out from behind her desk.

"Mr. Zala will require a room here as well." Gar told her, making Cagalli freeze. "He has become a target since last night."

Cagalli looked at Athrun, who had not said a single word since they entered the house. Athrun looked back at her, only to turn his head away a moment later.

"…Yeah, okay." Cagalli finally agreed. "If you'll excuse me, I have a staff meeting I need to get ready for. I'll see you guys later." With that, Cagalli exited the room.

"What is it with you and Cagalli?" Kira asked Athrun.

"It's complicated." Athrun replied.

"This still isn't about her almost marrying that moron who almost ran Orb into the ground, is it?" Tara inquired.

"Not really, but that is when things started to fall apart between us. I was such an idiot back then." Athrun chuckled darkly. "I'm going to go for a walk." He then walked out of the room.

_'I wish there was something we could do for them.'_ Lacus said telepathically to Kira.

_'I'm sure they'll work it out.'_ Kira mentally assured her. _'We did, right?'_

_'We certainly did.'_ Lacus replied as she cuddled up against him on the green couch they were sitting on.

"Bro, we should probably get out of here before we see something we're not supposed to." Tara quietly suggested.

"A wise move." Gar agreed.

* * *

Meanwhile, aboard the ZAFT ship, Minerva, pilot Lunamaria Hawke, or Luna as her friends called her, went to the hanger to go find Shinn. On her way to find Shinn, Luna ran into two mechanics, one a young man with dark skin and black hair, who she knew as Yolan Kent, and the other a young man with brown hair with a distinctive red crest, who was Luna's friend Vino Dupre.

"Hey guys." Luna greeted as she walked up to them.

"Oh, hey Luna." Yolan greeted back.

"Either of you two seen Shinn?" Luna asked them.

"He's probably towards the back checking out that new machine of his, the Lucifer." Vino assumed. "I still can't believe we're not allowed to work on that thing."

"What can we do?" Yolan said with a shrug. "That mobile suit is highly experimental. It's no surprise that they want their own team of mechanics working on it. Besides, we're going to be having our hands full maintaining the Impulse and this new unit we're getting."

"What new unit?" Vino asked.

"Didn't you hear? We're getting a new pilot today." Yolan explained. "Which means we're going to have a new mobile suit to work on."

"Oh yeah, I forgot that we're getting a new pilot today." Luna realized. "That's why we're here at the supply depot. Wonder when this person's getting here?"

"We're supposed to be getting this pilot's mobile suit any minute now." Yolan replied.

As if on cue, moving into the hanger by crane was a rust-brown mobile suit with a single eye. Luna and the others knew this model as a ZAKU Warrior, but there were quite a few things about the machine that set it apart from its brother units. Its armor was full of dents and scratches left over from many battles, and mounted into its shoulders were two Gatling guns. Painted on the center of the chest plate in white letters was the word, Valiant. The crane dropped the battle scarred mobile suit a few feet away from Luna and the others with a thud

"Wow, that thing's tricked out." An impressed Vino commented. "I've never seen a ZAKU modified like this before."

"Yeah, but the thing looks like its been through hell." Yolan pointed out. "It's probably not long for the scrapheap."

"I see you three are here to see the arrival of our new pilot's machine." A female voice suddenly spoke.

Luna and the others turned around to see walking towards them a woman wearing a white ZAFT command uniform and hat. She had long black hair tied in a braided ponytail and pink eyes. Luna, Vino, and Yolan all knew this woman as their commander, Captain Francine Jonas.

"Captain Jonas, ma'am." Luna quickly greeted as she and the two mechanics saluted.

"At ease, you three." Captain Jonas said after saluting back. "I only came here to meet our new pilot in person."

"Who is this new pilot we're getting, Captain?" Luna asked.

"Her name is Jessica Freedmen, and before being assigned to this ship, she was a pilot aboard the Aries." Captain Jonas explained.

"No way! The Aries?" a surprised Luna asked.

"What's the big deal?" Vino asked.

"The way I heard, half way through the war, the Aries caught way behind enemy lines." Luna explained. "Communication was cut off, and they spent about a month fighting off enemy ships trying to get back to the PLANTs."

"As I understand it, supplies were so low that the mechanics aboard the Aries had to use parts from enemy mobile suits their pilots took out in battle in order to make repairs." Captain Jonas continued. "That's why this ZAKU has been modified the way it has been."

"I also heard that less then half the crew of the Aries survived getting home." Luna recalled. "We must be getting one hotshot pilot. I can't wait to meet this person."

"You won't have to wait long, Lunamaria." Captain Jonas told her. "Here she comes now."

Luna and the others turned and saw walking towards them a young woman who looked to be about seventeen or eighteen. She had long silky chestnut-brown hair with a lock of it over one of her golden eyes. Her uniform was the red uniform of an elite pilot; only instead of a skirt that most female officers wore was a pair of tight white pants and a pair of black leather boots.

"Pilot Jessica Freedmen, reporting." The young woman greeted with a salute after walking up to them.

"Welcome aboard." Captain Jonas greeted back. "I hope your trip over here wasn't too rough."

"Not at all ma'am." Jessica replied.

"Well, I just came here to greet you in person." Captain Jonas explained. "I'll let you get settled in. We'll be heading out soon."

"Thank you ma'am. But if it's all the same to you, I'd prefer to make sure my machine is ready for combat." Jessica requested.

"Whatever you feel is best." Captain Jonas replied before walking off. Vino and Yolan meanwhile had already gone to check out the Valiant.

"Hi, I'm Lunamaria Hawke." Luna greeted. "It's an honor to meet a pilot like you."

"Whatever." Jessica said indifferently before heading for the Valiant.

"You know, I used to pilot a ZAKU Warrior at the beginning of the second war." Luna said in an attempt to make conversation.

"What do you want, a medal?" Jessica rudely replied.

"Aw man, this thing is a mess!" Vino exclaimed as he and Yolan began examining the Valiant.

"Hey! You idiots better not screw anything up!" Jessica shouted as she stormed over. "Or else I'll blow you two out the airlock!" Luna meanwhile sighed and decided to go find Shinn.

Deeper into the hanger, Luna found Shinn looking up at a very distinct mobile suit with several black cables plugged into it. It was grey in color and greatly resembled Shinn's previous mobile suit, the Destiny. Only there were a few differences. The horns on its head crest curved upward to form a crescent moon shape, and there was a second layer of armor on the shoulders. The armor on its torso was more curved and had an almost organic look to it. But the most noticeable difference was the faceplate. Part of it looked as though it had a large grin carved into it.

"Hey there." Luna greeted, pulling his attention away from the foreboding machine.

"Oh, hi." Shinn greeted back. "What brings you here?"

"I've been looking for you, silly." Luna replied before planting a kiss on Shinn's cheek. "I should've guessed you'd be back here looking at your new mobile suit."

"Yeah, I kinda miss the Destiny. But I guess this machine's more powerful." Shinn assumed.

"It gives me the creeps." Luna admitted. "Especially that control system I overheard the mechanics of this thing telling you about."

"You mean the neural interface?" Shin asked. "Yeah, that does seem a little weird. But I guess I'll just have to get used to it."

"I still don't like it. C'mon, let's get out of here." Luna suggested.

"Yeah, okay." Shinn agreed, and with that they left to the hanger. Though as they left, Shinn glanced back again at the Lucifer.

* * *

A few hours later, Shinn and Luna went to the galley to have dinner. Upon arriving, they saw Jessica sitting by herself at a table in the corner.

"Oh hey, there's that new pilot I told you about." Luna told Shinn.

"You mean that one that wasn't nice to you before?" Shinn asked.

"We probably just got off on the wrong foot." Luna assumed. "C'mon, let's go say hi." In moments, the couple walked over to Jessica's table.

"What do you two want?" Jessica asked in a tone that said she did not want to be disturbed, not once taking her eyes off the cup of coffee she was drinking.

"Shinn and I saw you sitting alone and thought you'd like some company." Luna answered.

"If I wanted company, don't you think I would've sat with somebody by now?" Jessica pointed out.

"Well, I guess so." Luna admitted. "It's just thought that since you're new to the ship that maybe…"

"You know, if I wanted someone to hang out with on this ship, I'd pick someone who took their job a little more seriously." Jessica said, cutting Luna off.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Luna asked, starting to become ticked off.

"I'm talking about that skirt of yours." Jessica explained, referring to the short pink mini-skirt Luna usually wore. "I mean I know the ZAFT issue skirts aren't the best when it comes to maneuverability. But you'd think you'd have picked something a little more professional-looking."

"Now you just wait a minute!" a very offended shot back. "Just because I decided to wear something that was a little more freeing, doesn't mean I don't take what I do seriously!"

"Could've fooled me." Jessica scoffed before taking another sip of coffee. "I'm just saying I'd respect you a little more is you didn't go into battle dressed like some ditzy party girl."

"Where the hell do you get off speaking to Luna like that?" Shinn yelled, beating Luna to the punch. The maroon-haired girl stepped aside to let Shinn confront Jessica.

"You're that hotshot pilot I heard this ship has, right?" Jessica asked indifferently. "Look, I'm sorry but I'm just being honest."

"You don't know a damn thing about who you're talking about!" Shinn shot back. "Luna has risked her life every time we go into battle! Do you think that because you survived on the Aries you're better than everyone on this ship?"

"Not at all. I've just learned that to survive you have to take this job seriously." Jessica told him. "And from what I've seen so far, it doesn't look like your friend does that. Tell me, Ms. Hawke, why did you join ZAFT?"

"Why the hell did you join?" Shinn asked before Luna could reply.

"Okay, fair enough." Jessica replied. "I joined ZAFT because I want justice. I'm a survivor from the Clyne Colony. I was one of the few who made it out when it was destroyed. When it happened I lost everything. So when I heard it was the Alliance that did it, I wanted payback."

"Oh I get it now. You want to get revenge on the Naturals for killing your family, is that it?" Shinn assumed. With that comment, Jessica suddenly stood up from her chair and slapped Shinn in the face.

"Don't you dare say something like that to me!" Jessica shouted. "A person I deeply cared about was a Natural, and I lost that person when the colony went up in flames! This isn't about race! It's the Alliance I hate for what happened! They're the ones who took everything I had! And if you want to call my reason for fighting revenge, then fine. But never suggest that I'm a racist!"

Jessica stormed out of the room after that outburst. Waling up to Shinn and Luna at that moment was a young woman with red hair tied into pigtails and wearing a green ZAFT uniform. This was Luna's sister, Meyrin.

"What was that about?" Meyrin asked.

"Oh, you know how Shinn and I are, sis. Making friends wherever we go." Luna said somewhat jokingly.

"I'll see you two later." Shinn said as he suddenly walked off.

"Now where is Shinn off to?" Meyrin wondered.

"Probably to let off some steam." Luna sighed. "I should pay him a visit later."

* * *

The evening came and Shinn had gotten into the shower. As he bathed himself, he thought back to his encounter with Jessica. Shinn had realized that he could've handled things better with her. But his rage had blinded him, though it was understandable after the comments Jessica had made about his girlfriend. Yet Shinn had to admit that he had said something stupid when he made that assumption about Jessica's need for revenge.

Shinn was stirred from his thoughts when he heard the shower door open behind him. He turned around and his ruby eyes widened when he saw Luna walk into the shower completely naked. Immediately Shinn could feel his rod hardening.

"Hey there." Luna greeted in a seductive tone as she walked up to him.

"Uh, hi." Shinn managed to utter. "What, um, why…?"

"I came to see if you were feeling okay." Luna explained. "If it helps, I've gotten over what Jessica said about me."

"That's good." Shinn replied. "Right now though, I'm mad at myself for saying what I did to Jessica. You know, about why she was fighting."

"It's not like you knew." Luna pointed out.

"Yeah, but the thing is that I could've handled that a lot better." Shinn told her. "You see the thing, I wasn't all that different from Jessica a few years ago. I was so full of anger when my family was killed in Orb that I just wanted to take it out on someone."

"Maybe you can help Jessica not make the same mistakes you did." Luna suggested.

"Like she'd talk to me." Shinn said sarcastically.

"You can always try." Luna pointed out. "Look let's not worry about that right now. I want to ask you something?"

"What?" Shinn replied.

"What do you really think about my skirt?" Luna asked.

"Uh… do I really need to answer that now?" Shinn replied, finding it harder to ignore his throbbing erection.

"Okay, I'll let it slide for now." Luna said before she and Shinn became locked in an open-mouthed kiss.

Their tongues fought for dominance for a while before they needed to break apart for air. Shinn then pushed Luna against the wall and inserted his rod into her. Luna clamped her legs around Shinn's waist as he began to pump into her.

* * *

Meanwhile, aboard and Alliance ship known as the Dutchman, Pamela, Scott, and Jeffery all waited in the ship's briefing room. After waiting for what seemed like an hour, Captain Desoto entered the room and sat at the head of the table.

"Sorry to keep you all waiting. But we've just been handed our first mission." Captain Desoto informed them.

"Finally some action!" Scott said enthusiastically. "I was starting to get bored on this tub. Hell, this has been almost as bad as prison."

"What is our mission, sir?" Jeffery asked.

"We're to attack and destroy the Minerva." Captain Desoto revealed.

"Wait, you mean the ZAFT flag ship?" a surprised Pamela asked. "I've heard that ship is unstoppable."

"Yes, it is quite a challenge." Captain Desoto agreed. "But our superiors think that this mission will be the perfect test for you and your mobile suits. We've already located the Minerva. The mission begins tomorrow."

"So when you say to destroy this ship, you mean that we should blow the crap out of it. Right?" Scott asked.

"You are to do whatever it takes, Mr. Winslow." Captain Desoto told him as he got up from his chair. "The attack will be at zero five hundred. I suggest you all get some rest before then." And with that the captain left the room.

"We finally get to play with the new toys." Scott said with a rather psychotic grin. "Groovy."

* * *

**Author's Note:** This ended up being a pretty Shinn and Luna focused chapter. It also ended up being way longer than I thought. As I said up top, there was originally going to be a battle in this chapter. But with so many scenes, I decided to wait until the next one.

Please review and let me know what you think.


End file.
